Tuesday, December 31, 2013

118 - Happy New Year

Well lets kick off this post by inviting you to look at a totally random fireworks display from the Sydney.


So new years resolution are you going to make. I love making, and trying to keep, new years resolutions. I totally believe in doing a few of them. Alot of people, and I have done it myself in the past, joke about their new new years resolution being that they are going to not have any new years resolutions. But why now try something. Choose to be a better you. Studies have shown that people who make new years resolutions are 41% more likely to still have kept the resolution going 6 months on compared to around 16%  for people who chose to make a resolution for some other time for the year.

I know that this year coming I am going to have an app on the Google Play store for a client that I have made myself (or myself and a business partner). There are a million things you could so to improve yourself, and even if it only lasted a few months, weeks, or even days, isn't it better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all!

Anyway... 2013. I had a good 2013. I finished college, I got my Brown Belt in Karate. In general all my family and friends are doing well. Ah it was a good year. I am especially that those stupid number plates will be gone, you know 131 and 132 ones on new cars, you know, the ones because people were afraid of ghosts. Yeah, every time I saw a new car I was embarrassed for the owner.

So we got our Sky television fixed today. Now we have some HD channels and they look fantastic. The only bad thing about Sky HD is that when you look at crap like Sharknado you see with extra crisp clarity exactly how bad it is.

Anyway, I hope those of you who have read this blog so far have enjoyed it. Hopefully I will be able to keep in going in 2014.

117 - Heavy Rain

There is no where better in the world to be when it is doing that really heavy rain than in the car. I was driving home in Carraroe around the twisty back road during a pelting rain storm. Well actually no, it was not a storm, it was pouring down, straight down and as I drove with my lights on full I could see huge rain drops sparkling all the way in front of me.

You know when you are in bed and you hear the wind and rain on the window, and you pull the duvet close up under your chin and you feel safe and cosy in the heat of the bed. I love that feeling. It is kinda the same when I'm in the car with the heat on, maybe some music, going around corners, nice driving, straights, nice big puddles to splash through. No rush anywhere. Just me and the rain.

Monday, December 30, 2013

116 - Movie 43

What can one day about Movie 43? Well it has a story. .. am... Some of the acting is quite good.

Oh yeah, and with enough money you can get some people to do anything. Then again,  I guess they are all actors and they were all doing a job. That's all I can say.

115 - Holy Rusted Metal Batman

I was in church today at a family thing. I went in with my wife and kids. We all bustled up to the top of the church. We got the kids ready by taking of their jackets etc. I put a jacket on the empty space on the pew beside me and then

"Take off your hat!" A grumpy old man who obviously never actually really thought of the words of the gospel, or in reality never really listened to them saw it best to, instead of learning the teachings of the bible, instruct me on what I should be wearing in church. Now I get his point. In church take of your hat, respect, yahdi yahda.

Now this is on the back of the mass we were at yesterday where a woman bit the head of us because we "went the wrong way" on the way down to the corp criost.

Are these people the role models of the church? Am I meant to bow respectfully at these elderly citizens of the church and scream back their deaf old ears "excuse me! for I am surely a buffoon heathen and I am not privy to the many rules and regulations and customs of your cold little closed in society. Thanks for drawing my attention away from the entity you call the creator of the universe and of Man, he who is all knowing, infinity loving just so I can take of my hat, or indeed walk between the correct seats and please you O bigotted angry fart."

I know my god. I don't queue for it. I don't bow to it. I don't pay it money. When I was younger I thought that was the good in the bible. The more I go to church though the more I realise how very wrong I was.

Friday, December 27, 2013

114 - Must... Stop... Eating.... Crap....

Sick again today kinda... well no,  I was worse yesterday. But it was no picnic today. Damn must detox like hell when I get home to Carraroe (tomorrow). Seriously. All Christmas I have felt like crap. Not a nice feeling. Why do we do this to ourselves. I am saying this to all the other foolish over eaters like myself. What were we thinking. Of course I know what they are all saying. We were not thinking. There was nice food in front of them. They were not hungry. The slice was big, one little piece off the side would do no one any harm. Mmmm, that was nice... one other little piece. Ah that was nice it will do. Wait a second, where is the rest of the cake gone, oh wait it is in my hand. And...

... now its gone!

113 - Boxing Day...

It used to be a thing around Carraroe that on Boxing day, or Lá an Dreoilín people would go around with a Dreoilin. A Wren, is that it? Was that the on Boxing Day? Of course because the majority of people is stupider than any single one person the exercise was looked down upon. So now no one goes out on Boxing day and Boxing Day is simply just another x-boxing day. And what of the Wren. No one, and I pretty much mean no one, cares about the Wren because now no one knows what a Wren looks like. There was a time back in the 80's when everyone knew what one looked like. Now no one knows. Of course ask most kids, and I mean most kids, what an AK-47 is and they will know exactly.
Kids this is a Dreoilin or a Wren...

Nice one society.

112 - Christmas Day!

Yippee... Santa visited and delivered all the good people a gift. Of course if you did not get a gift that does not mean that you are not a good person... I believe that all people are good people. It is worth remembering that only around 33% of the world does Christmas. So Band Aid... do they know it is Christmas time at all? Probably not... And that is not because they are poor. It is because they do not drink Coke Cola :)

Moving on... I got a Rasberry Pi. Looking forward to using it. It is basically a small Linux box around the size of a deck of cards. The kids loved the whole day putting together Lego they got, and playing with other toys. 

Although, I was sick today, and I mean pretty sick. I simply ate so much crap. I ate loads of crisps last night looking at Once Upon a time... and damn, everything was sitting in my stomach. I could have done with a medicine ball been dropped on my from a height in the way that it was dropped on Jean Claude Van Damme in Kick Boxer. Haven't seen it... torrent the film... 

There is something that I totally despise about Christmas though... actually, despise is too strong a word. I would simply rather, or at least, at the very least like to try out one Christmas where there are no presents at all. I know that one day everyone I love will have passed away and I will be sitting alone in a room and I will wake up on Christmas morning, alone. Alone. Alone. The word in a way is magic to me. 

Alone...

Alone....

It is the funniest irony that what I love the most about Christmas is hanging out with friends. No work. Just friends. But if I am alone, where are my friends. 

111 - Christmas Eve....

Well what do today except sit and wait for Santy tomorrow. By nighttime we placed our Secret Santa presents under the tree and left loads of space for Santy to deliver his presents. We watched some of one of favorite films too for a while - Once Upon A Time In America. Such a great film. And I never hear anyone mention it. If in a conversation I mention it amongst a few people one of them will have seen it, but no one mentions it in the same regard that I have for it. Maybe I am just too hyped up about it. But to me, it is one of De Niro best performaces.

110 - Trip to Westport....

My plan was this morning, get up at the crack of dawn. Slip into the car, head to Westport, do some "last minute shopping", come back to Castlebar and to wake Linda up by presenting her with a cup of coffee. What happened instead was that I slept in loads, felt physically crap for doing so, had to tell Linda that I wanted some shopping time, then went to Westport, chewing up and hour and a half of valuable family time.

Got what I wanted though...

109 - Up to Castlebar and Sophies birthday

So today we headed up to Castlebar. It was a great deal of work getting all the presents, all the surprise gifts, all the clothes, all of us - stuffed into the car. Seriously there was not an inch to spare. But we got everything in. We made our way up to Newport first where Lindas sister Finola had a little birthday party for Sophie. Poor Sophie, she is 9 today! She is beginning to seem to mature. The kid is giving way to the teen in a struggle that will last a few years.

Finally we left Newport and landed exausted to Castlebar, put the kids to bed and relaxed for the night.

108 - First Day Off

A the first day off. I didn't do much. We were meant to go into the cinema but the weather was kinda bad so we never mentioned the cinema to the kids and we just relaxed.

Friday, December 20, 2013

107 - If I ever fly in USA it will be with WestJet...


Nice happy video here. Westjet gives us a purple Santa Claus. Sure he is purple.. yeah it is obviously marketing, obviously it is commercial, but it is a nice feel good video I think.

106 - Moved office

Now, when I say we moved office, I mean that we moved from floor 2 to the ground floor. The day flew in that regard. I am very much waiting for the holidays! After work I went into town and did some christmas shopping. I kinda hated that so I left town as soon as I could.

When I got home Linda was the being the perfect wife, had dinner waiting for me while she was making cookies for the kids tomorrow at school.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

105 - Lucy acting! Kids school drama.

Lucy was at a school play this morning at 11. It was amazingly cute. We took some pictures of the play but they are on the phone so the whole thing looks too pixelated to go up here. Rest assured that all the 'actors' were brilliant!

Into work then for a talk with the boss and then the company Christmas dinner in The Front Door. Was nice....

104 - Tuesday....


Okay... another one of those what the hell did I do today days....

So my question is.. what did I do today? I know that in the evening I came home and we had board games. They were good, but I feel as if I will not be doing a whole lot of board gaming during Christmas.

103 - Karate break

No I did not break a leg or a hand. We are taking a break from classes and we will be back in the new year around mid January. Would you think about joining? I am not learning this video...


Bassai Dai... my road to the Black...

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

102 - Sophies Carraroe birthday party.

I saw Carraroe birthday party because she will be in Castlebar on the actual day of her birthday. Her friends were at this one and she received many cool presents. We mad
e her a Minecraft cake! It was delicious!

101 - Christmas Market

Lucy setting up the table...
Boy did we have a busy day this Saturday. We had a table at the Christmas Market that was happening in Carraroe in the lovely new hall in the old Industrial Estate. There were 40 tables and my understanding is that they were all sold out. Santy came and the kids had tons of fun.

We had a table there of course with our little business Connemara Computer Clinic. We had a competition to win a hamper and an angry birds game. It was brilliant fun, but... it was tiring..

Sophie making up some posters advertising our angry birds game.
It began at 11am to the public but we were there since before 10am and it went on until 3pm although that seemed like hours and hours more than it actually was. But still an excellent day...

When we got home we began preparing things for Sophies party tomorrow!


Saturday, December 14, 2013

100 - A century of blogging!

A century of blogging! Well, in the sence that a century is a hundred. Can you believe it! A hundred days! Again this is a kind of mile stone because I am almost a third of the way there. Cool I can't wait until I have the whole year done, then I will never blog again :) Only messing.... I am doing it because I like it. My plan of it dragging me back to the computer is working. I am not getting a whole lot done but I am getting more time on Minecraft!

Also, I have 29,003 views. Twenty nine thousand and three views. Wow, cool. My busiest month ever what December 2011 with 2096 view followed by July this year with 1951 views. Nice. I laugh at my humble little numbers when I think of any Youtuber worth their salt and how they would get 30 thousand view per video!

Amyway, must go to sleep. We watched Invictus this evening, the film about Nelson Mandela and rugby. It was good.

99 - Preparing for market....

So this evening myself and Linda got a whole lot of presents ready to give out at an event that is happening in the village this Saturday... seems strange calling Carraroe a village, but it actually literally is so I guess I am okay with it again. And we have a Minecraft themed birthday party happening on Sunday so we did some research for that. Some of the stuff out there is amazing I have to say!

Can't wait to get baking. I will provide images :)

98 - Okay, I don't hate shopping THAT much....

You might have already seen this article but then again, you might not have. But this person killed himself because his girlfriend told him that he was going to go into another shop! I have to say, respect to the dude... he really made a point, but I think I would sooner simply say "I am leaving you" rather than kill myself. Of course the whole "serious side" to this is that the poor guy was probably depressed or something and really needed medical therapy help rather than retail therapy. Anyway... it was strange...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2520753/Chinese-boyfriend-jumped-death-girlfriend-insisted-going-clothes-shop.html

Friday, December 13, 2013

97 - Nothing much going on....

Hmmm, had one of those days where not alot is happening? Myself and a friend are thinking of working on an app together.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

96 - Grace Hopper

Today Google had Grace Hopper on the cover of their page as their Google Doodle. I had heard of Grave Hopper before but damn, I had not heard enough. She was amazing. She did so many things for computers that it is really actually quite difficult to imagine the world without her. A few of the favorite things about her that I like are the fact that she popularized the term "Bug" in a computer program. While the term had been used by engineers before her, she referred to the instance of finding a moth in the mainframe that she was working on, and which was preventing her program to run correctly, as a "bug in the system".
Wow, the actual "Bug" in that was in her program...
She invented the first compiler, a program that would take 1's and 0's (Machine Code) and turn it into a human readable form. But there was something really cool I heard a Kurt Beyer recalling on attending a talk she was giving. At the age of 80 her topic was about the future. The future of personal computer, the future of how people will comminicate. She looked ahead, not back.

Do yourself a favor and take a moment to look at this page about her:

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

Monday, December 9, 2013

95 - Sunday Christmas Market in Eyre Square

Took the kids into the Christmas Market in Eyre Square today. I should have taken a picture but I was too tired to think of anything else other than driving and walking with the kids and Linda. I have to stress that I was really really tired. I was out on a Christmas party with the Carraroe Karate Club and it was really late when we got home. Somewhere in the region of 3 - 4 hours. This should not be a problem normally actually but I had done almost 2 hours of grading yesterday, well, around an hour and forty minutes.
Not my picture I have to add.... kids loved the carousal 

Anyway....

Kids. Market. Food. Christmas Market was brilliant. They have loads of different foods. Well then again, loads of different? I seem to think that there were more stands last year with a greater variety of food. Not that that really makes any difference to me. Really all I was ever going to eat was pizza or some sugar coated kind of food.

94 - Grading Day - Brown Belt!

Today I got a Brown Belt in Karate. It took alot of work, alot of training. Alot of getting off my ass and practicing katas. Alot of coming home from work only to turn on my heal and go up to the hall in Carraroe for 2 hours. But I was training with a great bunch of people and at the end of every class it was all worth it. Going up a belt is the ultimate reward for all this work. They symbolize all the work you have done I think. That is what it means to me anyway.
Brown Karate Belt
So this Saturday we had a grading where we are tested on basics and katas. I passed all my tests and now I have a brown belt! There are 3 belts in the brown, so I have 2 more grades and then a pre-Dan. After the pre-Dan I have the 1st Dan which is a black belt. In other words, I am on the first of 3 browns and then I am going for Black... that should happen hopefully some time in 2016 I think, or 2017.

Pretty cool. I am really looking forward to the next few years!

93 - Thank Crunchie it's Friday...

Not feeling the best at the moment and slightly nervous about grading tomorrow I got home and basically went to bed at around midnight-ish.

92 - Thursday

Damn I have no idea what I did today...

91 - Wednesday Karate

This was the last day we have karate before Saturday! Good enough...

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

90 - Stressed Out? List to the most relaxing music ever...


Well the most relaxing ever according to scientists... I have had a listen to it and I have to say that yes it is relaxing!

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. 

Monday, December 2, 2013

88 - Sunday....

Sunday... the kids let me sleep in. I got up, tidied up the house, the kids bedrooms. When down to the folks for dinner. It was a typical and nice Sunday. Linda came back and we chilled in the evening and watched some Big Bang Theory.

All good...

Sunday, December 1, 2013

87 - Damn, this kid thing!

I tell you, you need a licence to have a dog but anyone is allowed to have a kid (well almost anyone - looking at you China!). My two are angels but still tough work... can't wait till my wife is back from her much deserved weekend break!

86 - Late Late Toy Show...

Yeaahhhh Late Late Toy Show! The toy show could be viewed as as lame... could be. Of course it is not. It is a chance for kids to get a potential view of what toys they might finally ask for from Santy and it is a chance for mums, dads, guardians, etc to see what the hell the kids are talking about. That mysterious toy speak they have learnt from watching hours upon hours of ads on childrens television while you are busy sleeping or working or whatever it is you do in the morning. Then they dispence it on you so freely and casually you don't want to seem like "one of those parents" that is looking at their lips move while you think to yourself, "what on Earth are they going on about??".

Okay, my point is the following, Late Late Toy Show, for most people = good.

TV3 on the other hand... the toy show. I am not even going to bother capitalising its title correctly. While it was informative in the since the idea was 'here are the most sought after toys this christmas' there were a few things about it that I did not like. First the judging panel was a bunch of kids who gave every single toy bar one a score of 1000 out of 10, or mega out of 10 or something. But they are kids, easily swayed. Damn, the presenter however! He came across to me personally as the slimiest, most leading presenter ever dripping his opinion over all the kids with thing like ".... and, and that the Fuuuuuuurby. You like dha didn't ya! Didn't ya! Would ya give dha 10 oura 10 neow, would'dha? Would'dha!" to which the dazed kids would respond "yeah.... I loved it!". You see they were allowed to play with toys in exchange fir talking on TV... to a stranger, in a studio... in front of the 10 or so other crew that are staring them in the face! Of course they are going to say they love everything!

Ryan Tuberty on the other hand was funny, violent with the toys as usual (which we love) and most notibly, not leading his questions.

Hear that TV3.... yeah.... NOT leading his questions!

85 - Thursday....

Felt kinda crap today... and lately to tell the truth. Yeah... I feel kinda dead-endy... I don't know. One of those days of wake up, work, home, eat, sleep... hmmm

Thursday, November 28, 2013

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.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

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.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

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?

Friday, November 22, 2013

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.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

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 :)

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

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.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

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..

Saturday, November 16, 2013

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 :)


Friday, November 15, 2013

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.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

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.

Monday, November 11, 2013

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...

Friday, November 8, 2013

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...

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

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.

Monday, November 4, 2013

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.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

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

Friday, November 1, 2013

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.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

56 - The stars tonight...


My God... the stars tonight. They are amazing. The sky is amazing. Looking out into the infinite universe is both scary and one of the most beautiful things in existence.  

Not my picture

55 - Apple, the Rohypnol of the computer industry.

Linux is the beautiful woman you fall for, and you wake up one morning and she is laying beside you in the bed. She does not pretend to be anything she is not. She is generous, fun, and intelligent. She sticks up for you and defends you. Protects you and the both of you together can move mountains. She is free, she came into your life and asked for nothing.

Then there is Microsoft, she is expensive, high maintenance. You can't walk down the street without spending money on this chick somehow, she demands alot but when met in full this girl is amazing. And you know what, assuming that you bag the correct one your set... but some of them can be dumb as hell, and infact make your life hell with their dumbness. However all through your journey with this woman, you know where you stand.

Then there is Apple. The viper. You will pay the most for Apple. Truly she is the most beautiful by far, but like a siren, when you hold her you are totally under her control. Initially she was the woman in the bar that only drank champagne and ate strawberry's. Lately however she has become more deceiving, not because she can't bag enough men, but because she has found her competition boring. Now she no longer drinks champagne in classy nightclubs, now she hangs around in shady pubs, chats to you for a while, slips some rohypnol into your drink... when you wake up the next morning your head hurts, all of your money is gone, your cards have been emptied out... you realize in the worst way possible that you have been screwed. Your heart is broken and your angry at her, and you wish you never heard her name.

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

54 - Downloading Videos Off Youtube

Youtube is brilliant. Youtube really is simply amazing. I would like to hear what effect it has had on freedom and education... I personally have learnt SO MUCH from youtube that it almost make schooling a joke. 

However, some times you want to have a video off youtube and not be depending on wireless or your data connection. For this I use:


It is actually very easy to use... 

  1. Find the video you want on youtube and copy the address. 
  2. Enter the address in the search bar on the screen and hit Download
  3. For me anyway, a security warning box comes up telling me that I am going to use a java program, I am okay with that.
  4. Now options appear asking me what type of video I want to download, as in 3PG, FLV, MP4, I always go with MP4. 
  5. Click download and boom, you have your video wherever files go that are downloaded with the browers you are using. 

Monday, October 28, 2013

53 - Atomic Bombs are beautiful...

Did I ever tell you that I have a fascination with atomic bombs? Yeah, it would actually be a dream come true, honestly, to see one. The are such an amazing beautiful expression of human ability to conquer and control nature.

Nothing else need be said I think? Kinda like when you see a hot girl and your like "dude - check her out shes hot!" and your friend says "well, shes not my type". Maybe I am like that with atomic bombs, that I see them as amazing, but someone else is like "ain't no thing"... ie - they are simply wrong.

Sunday, October 27, 2013

52 - White House Down with Ubisoft.

I am going to assume that you do not know anything about the following: the film White House Down and the computer game Medal Of Honor. Now, the 2013 released White House Down is an action film starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx, really you do not know more about the story line other than there are characters in it that have been ex-black ops type etc etc etc. Interestingly in one scene in the film they are talking about all these "baddies" and they are showing the profiled pictures of them... this is one of the stills from the film:
So then I was thinking about this image after the film and I was sure that I saw it in a computer game. Did some Googling and found this image from Medal Of Honor, the computer game. 



See the resemblance? Pretty similar ah. Of course the thing that really made me look for the image was in the credits there is a "Visual Effects by Hybide Technologies - A Ubisoft Division". I

 So Ubisoft made Medal Of Honor and I think that this still was in the film to promote the game Medal Of Honor. What do you think?

Friday, October 25, 2013

51 - Brilliant Toyota ad.

Toyota have an ad for the Toyota Pickup at the moment. I was going to say "Here it is below.... watch it", but I could not find it!

Instead I am going to make sure that you have seen the Toyota Hilux edition of the BBCs program Top Gear. So here that is... 

  

Thursday, October 24, 2013

50 - Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft Minecraft

Minecraft... minecraft... 
Wow, over the last few days I have played more Minecraft than I have in the last few months. Don't know Minecraft? Sure you do! You don't?

Here is the official website... https://minecraft.net/
But there is a HUGE community with this game... here is one a few wiki links.... http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Minecraft_Wiki


Okay, you're a guy in this world where you can build redamentory objects like axes, pickaxes, swords to do things like fight of hoards of zombies that attack at night, or build any kind of house for yourself or a rail track to your mine that you are crafting these things in.

This is my house in real life, not my house in Minecraft
Alot of people when they first see this game instantly (and I mean instantly) judge it as crap game from the 80's whereas there are alot of people who play this game and are blown away by it and accept the graphics and realise that the game is about the gameplay. That is why the game is popular with kids too, they see past the graphics and love the infinately playable Lego aspect of the whole thing!

Want to play the game for free! Click here.

49 - Football and cheerleaders go hand in hand

Really today was a kind of an exausting day. Some good things happened and some "ugh... work... life" things happened.

Really today just reminds me of the term.. "an old 49er' ". So I am going to look into what it means...

49ers - NFL
I have found out that the 49ers are a football team in North America. http://www.49ers.com/. Right? How come when I go to this website they are all about the UK?
49ers cheerleaders... why can't Irish sports be more like this?

Well... after searching for a while on Google I have realised that as far as the internet is concerned if you have the number 49 and er put together you are in no way talking about anything other than the football team! So I give up... but instead of showing the actual football team here are their cheerleaders above!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

48 - Argh! Headache...

According to an article I just read right now there are 4 different types of headache:
  1. Vascular headaches - thought to be caused by blood vessel swelling and hyperemia (increase of blood flow). The most common type being migraine. Migraine sufferers typically have severe pain on one or both sides of the head, visual disturbance, and/or upset stomachOther forms of vascular headaches include cluster headaches and toxic headaches. Click here to read our separate article "What Are Cluster Headaches? What Causes Cluster Headaches?".
  2. Muscle contraction (tension) headaches - also known as myogenic headaches, are caused by the tightening/tensing of facial and neck muscles, these account for nearly 90% of all headaches. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen reported in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology that 3% of the population has chronic tension-type headaches.
  3. Traction headaches - these are usually caused by pulling or stretching pain-sensitive parts of the head, as may occur during eyestrain and eye muscles are tensed. G. Kim Bigley wrote in the book "Clinical Methods: The History, Physical, and Laboratory Examinations. 3rd edition, "Headaches can result from intracranial mass lesions such as metastatic tumors, abscess, or hematoma (a solid swelling of clotted blood)."Traction headache is caused by organic diseases involving structures in the head
  4. Inflammatory headaches - these headaches are symptoms of other disorders, including sinus infection,meningitis, or stroke.
I think I have the second one... muscle contraction. Of course this is making me ask more questions than I had originally thought up. Like, where does a hang over come into all this? I did karate yesterday and that was very muscle tension-y (!) so that is why I think I am in the second category. 

But there was a little that I thought I knew about headaches and this does not fit any of it, I thought when you have a headache that blood vessels in the skin or bag around your brain begin to contract or expand giving the headache feeling. That is why when I was in America a few years ago, Boston to be exact, and that I stopped into 3 or 4 Dunkin Doughnuts a day that and had a coffee at every one with my few doughnuts that I began to have serious migraine headaches. All the new coffee in my unexpecting system was exciting the vesels around my brain. So I stopped drinking coffee on the advice of a cousine that was advising me that this was the problem, of course then I had more headaches, she said that this was because I was "coming down" from all the coffee. 

Maybe they do say that in the above 4 points... couldn't focus enough on the little text there was. 

Oh boy... it is enough to give a man a headache....

Monday, October 21, 2013

47 - xcode... how I hate thee

If you want to write apps for the Apple App Store you will write them in Xcode using a programming language called Objective C. I hate all of it...
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I have spent so many hours, days in fact, trying to get some things working on the iPad that we own, trying to get an app that I am working on onto the iPad. Damn I am tired, and I just hate all of it.

That is all, I have wasted so much time on this...  well, not wasted of course. I have learnt so much, but is my app finished? No.

No it is not! :(

Sunday, October 20, 2013

46 - Sunday - Programming Basic on the Commodore 64

Played Annie on LOL....

Another thing I did this evening was download a Commodore 64 emulator. Yeah, after realizing a few things namely that I wish that I had programmed the Commodore 64 when I was alot younger and that any programming I do today will help me with my current learning of programming. So with that said I have begun to learn how to program the Commodore 64. Now, I do not mean I am going to become a Commodore 64 programmer. Just in case you do not know the Commodore 64 was released around - my God - 30 years ago!

Here is a little same of code:

1 REM UP, UP, AND AWAY
5 PRINT "(CLR/HOME)"
10 V = 53248 : REM START OF DISPLAY CHIP
11 POKE V + 21,4 : REM ENABLE SPRITE 2
12 POKE 2042,13 : REM SPRITE 2 DATA FROM BLOCK 13
20 FOR N = 0 TO 62 : READ Q : POKE 832+N,Q : NEXT
30 FOR X = 0 TO 200
40 POKE V + 4,X : REM UPDATE X COORDINATES
50 POKE V + 5,X : REM UPDATE Y COORDINATES
60 NEXT X
70 GOTO 30
200 DATA 0,127,0,1,255,192,3,255,224,3,231,224
210 DATA 7,217,240,7,223,240,7,217,240,3,231,224
220 DATA 3,255,224,3,255,224,2,255,160,1,127,64
230 DATA 1,62,64,0,156,128,0,156,128,0,73,0,0,73,0
240 DATA 0,62,0,0,62,0,0,62,0,0,28,0



Now, if you typed that in in your Commodore 64 you would get the following image...

Oh.... ahem, well. I was going to have a screen shot here but it seems like the Commodore 64 emulator I was using did not like being screen shot.

ha ha ha... I actually find it really funny. It is exactly like something that would happen after typing in tons of a program, you type in the whole thing and then it does not work or something happens and then you have to type in the whole thing again!

ok this is lame, the image is so pale because a print screen would not work! this is the screen grab after the image crashed! lols... but if you look you will be able to see the little ballon that was floating across the screen. 

45 - The Beatles

Brilliant music... The Beatles... for FREE! :)

Ever go on a torrent and download music?

Yeah.. No?

Well you know who is totally okay to torrent... The Beatles... yeah. They do not even own their own catalogue. They kinda got ripped off and the rights to their own music was bought from them mostly by the late Mr Michael Jackson. So.. ahh... he's dead... again, you know God rest his soul. But basically who is going to loose money on you downloading the Beatles back catalouge.

Certainly not the remaining member of the Beatles anyway!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

44 - Light bulb

Ah the Incandescent light bulb! Where would we be without it? Sitting with my camera in my kitchen looking for more things to shoot, I found myself gazing at the lights.

Why am I taking pictures of a light bulb?

I tried to look at the filament... kinda worked.

Friday, October 18, 2013

43 - Commodore 64

Wow. I think I have felt my first regret? No I don't even think it's regret more a feeling of "damn I wish I could go back in time". Back to a time when myself and my brother Mart were kids. We had a Commodore 64 and to tell the truth we barely knew how to use it. Back then it was our oldest brother Johnny who was the computer wizard. I remember him using a hand held scanner and being amazed and kinda confused at it.
I remember the loading times. My god what would the youth think today? Ha ha ha! We had a game we loved called "Get off my garden". It took 15 minutes to just load the game! Imagine that.


But then Supremacy. Was that on the C64? It was such a great game? Was Multi player soccer manager on the C64 too? Great games!
I remember Mart typing up a 'huge' program from the back of the manual that came with the C64. When it was finished you could play a midi keyboard with the letters on the keyboard. It was simply seriously cool.
So what's all the regret? I had good time did I not? I definitely did. But there was so much wasted potential. I could have been programming basic on the C64. I could have been making games. Instead I hardly remember the 1980's. I hardly remember my youth at all.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

42 - My karate.

My karate is going okay. The next belt that I'm going for is called Tekki Shodan, first brown. I'm looking forward to getting a Brown belt. One of the things that happens when speaking to people about karate is that they do not understand the belts. They don't understand the order that they come in, why would they? I didn't understand the belts myself until I began karate. 

But more people understand brown. In belt terms it comes before Black. And everyone understands the black belt right. So it is more obvious... Brown, Black...

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

41 - Wikileaks, Adrian Lamo... whistle blowers....

I'm kinda confused about something here. I read up a bit on Adrian Lamo a few years ago and I knew that he was known as "the homeless hackers". When I got to know read up about him first I read about the way that he would be break into websites, identify security weaknesses and not charge anything for the service, if you could call it that. He did this for some companies and he to this too some companies. He was somewhat of an ethical hacker, a grey hat. He broke into these sites because he wanted them to be more secure.

Then one day in 2010, Adrian Lamo was contacted by the now famous Bradley (Chelsea) Manning. Bradley Manning basically confided in Lamo telling him (Lamo) that he had leaked thousands of files to the website wikileaks. Files leaked were about the American government and issues regarding matters of national security.

Lamo reported the the soldier Bradley Manning to the US Army counter intelligence and Manning was arrested. Manning is now in prison and is not going any where for at least another 8 years (at least that if she is lucky.

My point?

Did Lamo do right? Did Lamo do the correct thing in whistle blowing the whistle blower? There is alot more to it than what I written here, like a-l-o-t! But to me, it is a basic question. Within the computer community alot of people knew Adrian Lamo as a grey hat hacker. Manning must have known it too. Was Lamo wrong? Was Manning wrong leaking the files?

Monday, October 14, 2013

40 - Day forty...

So as you may or may not know I am doing a test to see if I can post one blog post every day for the 37th year of my life. So far I am getting there.

39 - Sunday

Not alt happened today. I worked on a website that I am working on and I had dinner down at mom's and dads. Linda and the kids came back from Castlebar and I was happy to have them back. Played League of legends this morning with Barry Mart and them. It was all good. Really good fun actually.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

38 - Stargate SG-1

The first episode of Stargate SG-1 was aired on the 27 July 1997. Over the last week or so I have begun watching them... yep I never miss a beat.

Stargate SG-1 - Classic
So anyway, I saw an episode today - Singularity - that was just for the record first aired 31 October 1997. My god it was brilliant. I really do regret not having watched them all before this I have to say. This episode was so good that I would love to talk to someone about it, but you know what not that many people are interested. I know a handful of people who have watched all of these episodes before and when I talk to them about them they are like "oh yeah - Stargate was really good". I am literally 16 years too late to enjoy the hype that goes with this sort of thing.

Friday, October 11, 2013

37 - CERN Google maps tour of the LHC

You know the way that Google have a street view in Maps.... well the boys and girls at Google Labs have made a street view of the the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

LHC at Cern... so many wires... so... many.... wires...


If you do or do not know about this please do look it up anyway. It is definitely going to make you appreciate more the amazing technology at CERN.

https://www.google.com/maps/views/streetview/cern?gl=us

A little side fact that I like to tell people to make them appreciate the CERN more... you know the way that you are reading this off a web page, yeah... webpage were invented at CERN as a side project to help them view the vast quantities of information that they had. Tim Bernard Lee worked for them back then. My point is, you want to know about tomorrow, look at CERN today.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

36 - Keeping the wolf from the door.

What is government there for?

When I vote in government I am voting them in so that they will do my bidding. I do not mean that I want the government to clean my clothes and do my shopping. What I want is that the government do the job that we all expect / want it to do. Run the country for the people.

I should not be afraid of the government. I could ask if I should be afraid of a member of staff that I have working for me. No I should not. So is "the government" my member of staff, yes and no.

No of course they are not my PERSONAL member of staff. But yes, I do pay them. They are there to do what is best for me, or to hold the analogy, my business. You get the point of what I am saying.
What is wrong with this picture?

Where did we go so wrong then that I overheard the following conversation today... Two men were speaking on the stairwell as I passed. I heard the first man say that he was happy that he was on the road more often now, because some other person was doing the paper work and that he never thought that he would be happy in a partnership but it was actually working out fine actually.

So, clearly person 1 had begun a partnership with someone and he was informing person 2 of this fact. Person 2 said "ah, it will keep the wolf from the door".

What wolf?

Who's door?

Is the government the wolf? In all honesty people what has gone so wrong? How much do we fear the body of people collectively known as the government that we now see ourselves as the lambs in this scenario?

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

35 - Ass kicking machines of the future...

Terminator 1, Terminator 2... basically machine that kill and do amazing things. Of course machines do amazing things right now, computers, cars, MRI Scanners etc are amazing. But we are used to seeing these things in every day life. Wanna be impressed? Look at some new tech... take a moment and look at some of the following videos:

The first is Big Dog.. a friend was telling me that they have discontinued Big Dog for military purposes because the soldiers that were working with him were getting to attached to him.

Second one is totally class and I am hugely impressed by it. You know the way a flea can spring and jump really high.. that ain't nothin'. Look at this....


Third and last one is. Think you could outrun the fastest man on Earth - This website has the following data "The data on Usain Bolt showed that he reached at top speed of 12.27 metres per second, which is 27.44 miles per hour!" Look at this machine how fast it can run... just imagine when it has had a few years more progress.



All these amazing videos can be found with alot more on Boston Dynamic.

34 - Mini Reunion

I met up with some college friends this evening and we all talked about work and college and regular life and about TV shows, what to watch and what not to watch. And you know what it reminded me of... well, college life. I remember when I got my degree there was alot of work, there was alot of stress. The pain of coming into college, living on the bread line some what, alot of the people in your class were very different to you. All of this was good and bad. But it was a certain type of challenging to when I got my post graduate last year (well 2012 - 2013).

This time college felt like if I turned up I would pass my exams. If I paid attention in class it would do reasonably well. Definitely the course I was on this time around was harder than my degree but I still did better in my post grad than I did for my degree.

It just leaves me with one question.... what the hell was I doing in college?

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...