That time of year again…

JOKE: Person 1: What are you giving up for Lent? Person 2: Licking the bowl clean. I'm going to flush it like everyone elese. Boom Boom. Lent is upon us again. I've decided to give up the booze for Lent. Andrea is new to the concept. I explained that there are forty days in Lent, excluding Sundays and the days are marked by fasting and acts of penance. Generally people give something up for Lent, usually something they enjoy – wouldn’t make much sense to give up beating yourself with bamboo sticks; unless you enjoy it! I recounted the times growing up and giving up sweets, sugar or something sweet. I have never been able to take sugar in tea or on cereals since and I don’t have a sweet tooth. What will happen to me if I give up booze and I can’t go back to it? What will become of me? Health benefits, monetary benefits, increase in mental capacity. These are just some of the downsides of staying off the booze. How many times have you heard people say, or have said…“money doesn’t bring happiness”, “…that guy thinks he knows everything and check out the six pack, that SOB must work out all the time…” They don’t prepare you for this in school. I was thinking about a great film the other day, ‘Whithnail and & I’ with Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann. I can hear the voice of Grant as Whithnail bursting into the living room saying “I NEED BOOOOOZE” and can imagine myself doing the same and Andrea looking at me thinking “that boy needs help”. I’m in two minds whether to go for a beer tonight or leave it. I won’t be drinking tomorrow so my lent will unofficially start tomorrow. Okay I’ll go for a beer tonight. I’d love to read comments from other people about what they plan to give up and why – click on the comment link below to add your comment. There is a Mardi Gras festival in San Diego tomorrow evening. I’ll be working at the Field Irish pub in a security capacity. I hope it won’t be as soul destroying as the Guinness gig (see previous post). It’s now 19:00 in San Diego it has been raining today. First time since I’ve been here that it has rained so much and it’s nice to hear cars passing outside with the noise that splash sound that a car makes on a wet road. For now friends, Bye.

Some information: Lent Lent (also called the Lenten Season) is a 40-day period of fasting and repentance in preparation for the celebration of Easter. It has been observed since apostolic times as a period of reflection and penitence for those who would be baptized on Easter, and a time for all sinners to repent. Lent was originally observed for six weeks excluding Sundays (36 days), but this was eventually extended to 40 days in order to parallel Christ's temptation in the wilderness. In the Western Churches, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (six and a half weeks before Easter). In the early history of the church, strict fasting was observed throughout this period. One meal was allowed per day, in the evening, and meat, fish, eggs, and butter were forbidden. Strict observance of fasting was discontinued among Roman Catholics during World War II, and today is rarely observed throughout the Lenten Season. However, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are still fast days for the Catholic Church, and the emphasis on Lent as a period of penitence remains. Many Christians, especially Catholics, choose to give up a single indulgence (like chocolate, french fries or cola) for the 40-day period as a sign of repentance and an exercise in self-control. Eastern Churches continue to observe a strict fast during "Great Lent," which begins on the Monday of the seventh week before Easter and ends on the Friday preceding Good Friday. As in the early church, meat, fish, eggs, and butter are forbidden, as are wine, oil, and dairy products.

I dont know what that was, but it wasn’t love…

**Visit http://www.indymedia.ie/article/74507 for images from the day**
I am annoyed with the goings on today on the streets of Dublin. It’s 9:30pm in San Diego. Andrea is at work until 10:30pm, some poor soul has forgotten to collect a pizza from the restaurant and it befell me to call over to pick it up and bring it home to give it a good home (in my belly). Who orders a pizza and forgets to pick it up?

I brought the box home and opened it up – olives, onion and cheese and extra packets of crushed red pepper to give it the extra kick. You really know when someone understands you when they put extra packets of crushed red pepper with a pizza you never ordered!

I decided to see what has happening back in the ‘Old country’. I logged on to www.rte.ie for updates on the Six Nations (I was happy to see the Scots giving ‘Old’ blighty what for’). Then I went to the news home page. Over the last few days I had been listening to the ‘last word podcast’, Mat Cooper was discussing the Love Ulster campaign. Shock, horror, violence, fear, burning, and terror gripped the streets of the city centre.

Love Ulster? That’s a high maintenance relationship.
So this began with the Shankill Mirror a newspaper in the north and supported by the Ulster Unionists. I just checked the Love Ulster website, there is no information on the page whatsoever. http://www.loveulster.com/ . Love Ulster is a campaign for Unionist unity. Love Ulster calls for the democratic rights of the Unionist community to be recognized and respected…fair enough.

What annoyed me is that Love Ulster decided to take their march to Dublin city. This didn’t serve any purpose but only in my opinion to ‘put it up to the Irish’. I think that some small minded people from Dublin (and others) decided to run riot in the city. Play into the hands of the bigots. Give the news media what they want. “Ah sure they’re only Oirish, probably had a few too many drinks, looking for a fight again. Sure we love them anyway…”

I feel ashamed by what took place today in my city. This is a case of the Irish doing damage to themselves and to their reputation and the Unionists looking for ways to antagonize the republican movement and cause more trouble that someone else has to pay for.

Love Ulster…?

I’ll call you sometime.

This just in…Guinness Watch Revisited

Thumbs up to the Guinness dude

Come in or else…

Is the blur because of too much Guinness?

Something on the radio made me think…

Something on the radio made me think…

In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it. Robert Heinlein

Today I was in the kitchen making some food. National Public Radio on KBPS was on in the background. A show (don’t know which one) was on and something caught my ear. A 1997 interview with Drew Carey was playing; the reason is something to do with the release of some new DVDs. Anyway, Drew was talking about his experiences growing up and he said that when he was fourteen he had written down on some paper things that he wanted to do, ‘Be a stand up comic, be on TV etc’. He had forgotten about it until years later. His mother had kept all these things in a scrap book and when he saw it he said he was ‘blown away’. All the things on the paper he completed. He said that it ‘must have been at the back of my mind all those years.’ Drew had put down on paper goals. People who have clearly defiend goals have a greater chance of reaching their goals than people who don't.

 

My mind immediately went back to a conversation I had with a friend at the start of 2005. He had written his goals for the year at the start of 2004 (by 2005 I want to…) and put them into a file. At the start of 2005 all of the goals were realized. The amazing thing to me about this was that one of the goals was something that he didn’t have direct control over. What I mean is that I would consider direct control to be something like ‘My goal is to buy a new car this year’. However the goal he had (and was number one on the list), was something that depended on other people to be fulfilled, without going into great detail it had something to do with recognition.

We talked about the importance of having clearly defined goals. So many people go through life and wonder why things ‘happen to them’ and not for them.

Brain Dump. Close but no cigar for Desktop LINUX…?

I woke up this morning thinking that the opportunity for the desktop LINUX may have come and gone. I am by no means a LINUX expert. I like LINUX and the philosophy behind the FSF. I apologize for any errors in my post below. This is just a brain dump when I got out of bed.

Summary:
For Linux to succeed on the desktop the developers of the software need to think more about the end user and ease of use than how much they don't like MS.

GNU operating system was developed by Richard M.Stallman and the GNU project.
LINUX Kernel – developed by Linus Torvalds. A Kernel is the software that allows all the other bits of software to work together.
LINUX Operating systems distributions supplied by RED HAT, Novell, Debian, Ubuntu, Yellow Dog and many more.
Majority of people (including Linus Torvalds) believe that the name of the operating system is LINUX. Stallman believes that the correct name of the operating system is GNU/LINUX (pron. GNU slash Linux).
GNU/Linux is very popular as a server operating system.
More and more each year there is talk of "the year of the Linux desktop". I woke up thinking that this may never happen. Why?

Distributions.
There are lots of different GNU/Linux distributions. That's good because you are not limited to running GNU/Linux on your new PC, you can run it on your old PC, or you laptop etc. The problem is that some software that you can run on one distribution may not run on another distribution without some tweaking or modification of the software code, or by downloading some other software or changing a dependency or something else that I just don't care about. I am the end user. I just want it to work.

If desktop Linux is to work, I believe the the LINUX companies and development teams need to focus and think about what an end user uses a PC / Laptop for. They need to have one standard for programs that run on the desktop. Take away the hassle from the end user. One type of install file be it RPM or something else. I think about installing files on a Windows PC. I run the exe file and soon the program is installed. Why not desktop Linux. Remember United LINUX. What happened to that? I believe that GNU/LINUX will not make that jump from a server operating system to a desktop to really challenge Microsoft because the companies involved cannot make their minds up and agree on a standard. This is a loss to the end user and to the GNU/Linux community.

Developers
Why would a software developer want to write different versions of the same program that should run on the same operating system? Waste of time. Write one 'exe type' package manger to deal with the installation – all of it.

Google, Apple or other…
A lot of people are talking about Google as Microsoft's new big competitor for the desktop. Not too mention Apple and its new Intel based PC's (sorry Mac's). Apple's products work. Someone mentioned the other day "if you want it (the machine) to work, get a Mac, if you want to play around with it get a PC." The days of talking about how much memory you have or how you are going to change your graphics card for a higher spec, how fast your processor is are gone.

Google has released a number of software programs (link) that work really well on the desktop (Windows anyway), Google Earth, Gmail, Google Desktop Search, Picasa and on and on…
This is what PC users want – software that works well, and that is easy to use and install. Linux on the desktop does not offer that. It could, but I doubt that it will get the chance.

Stars and dogs.
Openoffice is a fantastic free desktop productivity suite that can run on Windows based platforms and GNU/Linux platforms. The install process on a Windows Machine is more straightforward on Windows than LINUX, why? It also comes as part of most LINUX distributions installation. However its a bit more challenging to install or to update from a download.

GIMP (Image program) is a one of the best programs you will find on LINUX. Again it comes with most distros already installed. If you are the desktop user and want to install it or update it. Have fun.

Dogs
Try to connect to a network drive, connect to a network printer, add a new disk drive (you may be able to read the drive but can you write to it??) or any other task that you might need to do in an office environment. It is just not that easy to do with GNU/LINUX.

Summary
GNU/LINUX developers need to think more about the end users of the operating environment and the software developers and make it as easy as possible for them to use the products. Then LINUX on the desktop may be a challenge to MS, GOOGLE, APPLE and others.
Time is running out.

Another thing I’ll never ever do again…

On Friday 17th February I dressed up as a pint of Guinness to help promote something called the Guinness Toast. What is the Guinness Toast? The idea is that all the Irish bars in the area pack as many people into their bars as is legally allowed and at 9:00pm they all raise a pint of Guinness and generally get plastered. Apparently it happens each year over here however I’ve never come across this in Ireland. Has anyone else?

The bar I was at ‘The Field’ http://www.thefieldirishpub.com had a local radio station (ROCK 103) broadcasting and a live band called Skelpin. I was thinking that anyone there who had a bad day at work or had a job they didn't like could take some solace from looking at me and thinking, “no matter how bad my job is, at least I’m not that guy.”

You’d be surprised by how many adults want to hug and grab at a large foam pint of Guinness. I was also surprised that most of the time when people took pictures of me I smiled for the camera even though my face was hidden. “Hey Guinness dude…”, “Hey it’s the Guinness guy…” over and over. The one good thing about the suit I had to wear was that I was completely covered up so I kept some of my dignity.

I had a huge pair of shoes and a big Mickey Mouse type hands and the foam pint that went over my head. The guy who was working as security on the door was a bit miffed (I think) because it would be up to him to get me out of a pickle if someone decided to have a go at the large pint, or he’d have to give chase if people decided to pick me up off the ground and run off with me.

I had great fun telling people who wanted to talk to me that I used to be a dot.com millionaire, or that I studied under the great Mickey Mouse, Tiger the tiger and all the other great characters.

Anyway to make a long story longer, after three hours of this I had had enough of this experience. Actually after 20 minutes I had enough but stuck with it for three hours. So at about 9.20 the bar manager came out and asked me if I wanted to take a break. A break, I thought I was finishing at 9.00pm? I went in and had a sandwich, minus the suit (let me point out that I did have clothes on under the suit). Someone must have been looking down on me because it started to rain. I cannot tell you how happy I was to know that it was raining outside. No more Guinness dude for me.

I did manage to get some more work from this; on the 28th February there is a large ‘Mardi Gras’ festival that runs though the area. The bar has asked me to work as a door man for the evening checking IDs, guns etc. So that’s a step up…isn’t it?

Got Wood?

Today Andrea and I took the short trip to Mission Beach. Mission Beach is the center of a continuous stretch of beach known as The Strand, which extends over two miles, beginning at the Mission Bay channel entrance and ending at the north end of Pacific Beach.

Mission Beach is home of the 'Giant Dipper' roller coaster. The interesting thing about this coaster is not its size or that it has turns and bends that defy all logical thinking about how a body should move through time and space. The interesting thing about this coaster is that it is made from wood. By today's standards the giant dipper is a straightforward ride. No upside down flips, no massive vertical drops and no corkscrew turns to make you wish you didn't have a boiled egg just thirty minutes ago. However when I saw the ride my first thought was “there is no way I'm going on that thing.”

Andrea had spoken to her Aunt Laura who lives near Mission Beach and arranged to meet her at the coaster entrance. Laura was going to ride this wooden antique with us. I turned to Andrea and with as much of a macho voice as I could muster when I want to still sound like I have full control and said “you know what I don't think I'm really in the mood for this today. You and Laura should do it though, ya know it will be fun for you to catch up with her.” Anyway to cut a long (and possibly boring) story short Andra was having none of it. I was marched over to the ticket booth with the sentence “everyone should do something that brings them out of their comfort zone every day” ringing in my ears. Personal development be damed!

White washed wood, carnival lights, clanking steel and creaking timbers remind you, this is no modern marvel. The screams from a ride in progress tested my nerves: are those people really scared or just having a great time?

I got into the ride car. No fancy buckle mechanism, no fancy straps, just a bar that sits on your lap. Did it lock properly? It did but the wondering adds to the scare of the ride. You hear the wood creak you feel the gear engage as the chain grabs the cart and pull it along. The first part of the ride takes you into a dark tunnel, “ don't let the first light I see be top of a large drop, please…” I was worried that I might hurl. The ride comes out of the tunnel and begins the climb to the fist drop. Then you are flung about through a series of twists and turns that by today's standards would be considered mild. The real scare is in your head. The noise of the other people screaming, the feeling of the metal, the wood structure all contribute to give you a real sense of excitement and a really great ride.

The other interesting thing I saw today was a car covered in wood panels. What events have to happen in someone's life to decided to buy / or DIY your car in wood panels? It wasn't even the best wood paneling job I've seen. Someone was cutting corners. The mind boggles.

Foot Watch 2006…

Foot Watch 2006 – This is going to run and run… one step beyond…

This is how the weather is looking today: 26 degrees.

**Foot Watch Update** Feb 07, 20:00HRS – no changes in situation of foot or sock situation. Climate is normal. Vital stats; normal. We are at code Yellow(ish). It could happen to you… If you think you may be in a relationship where a partner may have broken a toe or may be faking it to get more attention or iPod accessories like the new ear bud lanyard headphones for the the ipod nano then make sure to visit these sites. Thanks to JK and LC for the links. Andrea passes on her thanks too. Is your foot is broken? http://www.ehow.com/ how_6044_know-toe-broken.html HAMMER TOE: www.foot.com ********************************** Thanks to Liam for suggesting that Andrea might have a condition called ‘Hammer Toe’ Liam outlined in an email his “diagnosis” of the condition? Has Andrea’s toe swollen, especially on the top, just below the nail? – YES Does she find it difficult to bend her toe, particularly upwards? – YES If you climbed on the kitchen table, and then jumped off and landed on her toe, would she scream? – YES, yes she did. I told Andrea about Liam’s ‘diagnosis. She dismissed Liam as a ‘quack’, a ‘charlatan’ and a fly by night leech peddler. I pointed out that Liam also said that he suffered the same condition, the result of trying to jump over a small wall and misjudging the height; result put his foot right into it. I don’t know why Liam does the things he does, but I suppose if you see a wall you sometimes have to decide whether to walk by that wall or to try to jump it. Andrea must have given this some thought, or more likely dismissed it completely. She did however go to the doctor and it turns out she doesn’t have ‘Hammer Toe’. She has something much less cooler sounding – a fracture of a bone in the metatarsal area sort of thing. The result is that she is now on crutches (I like them), in a bandage and on pain killers that are keeping her awake at night (and me too!), I suppose a pain shared is a pain…no forget that. Andrea is having a difficult time getting used to the crutches – mainly because I’m playing with them and because they are hard on the hands and arms. I suggested putting socks on the handles – this is under consideration. I’ll keep you posted on the sock situation – keep an eye out for “SOCK Watch 2006 ” a sad spin off of “Foot Watch 2006”

What price dignity? On Friday 17th February if you happen to be in downtown San Diego and you happen to pass by the Field   Irish bar – you'll see me. Well you'll see a giant pint of Guinness costume that I'll be inside. There is a festival (no not a St. Patrick’s day warm up), its a Guinness festival (is that the same thing?). Anyway I got a job of standing outside the bar and making my mum and country proud. I'll get pictures for this one. Ahhh yes living the dream! Stay tuned for Guinness Watch…

San Diego Diary Sunday February 5th

Superbowl Sunday February 5th, 2006	Question: How do you know if someone has broken their middle toe on their right foot?

San Diego Diary 2006 Saturday 4th February

San Diego Diary,

Saturday February 4^th, 2006.

“…A man walks into a bar…”

First of all I want to address a question that some of you (okay two) have asked about the blog. The question that came up from Gary and Mary is “Who is the blog for?” Well, I’ve been pondering this for a day or so, in between naps, runs (not ‘the runs’) and other things that have been filling up my head. Is it for family? Is it for friends? Is it for me? What if I didn’t know, should this mean the end of the blog? Then the answer came. I can now say with 99.999% certainty that I know who the blog targeted towards…later! Andrea and I are out walking in Balboa park most mornings. We walk for ½ hour and then come back have breakfast, Andrea gets ready for college. She told me that she feels the better for it. Now in the evenings we are out kicking a football around. Andrea’s getting used to kicking the ball and working on her ‘first touch’. There are a lot of homeless people around San Diego. I think they come here for the warm weather and just forget to bring credit cards, money, maps or directions to a decent hotel so they just hang out on the streets and in the park. Andrea mentioned that a lot of them are ex-army and after they have been out of service or no longer covered for medical expenses etc., by the army they are left with nothing or with nowhere to go. Anyway on the way down to the park with the football yesterday we came across a man with a knife on his belt. This guy was not a threat because he had passed out on the sidewalk. This guy ‘Rory’ I’ll call him for convenience looked as if he had fallen straight over and was spread out with arms and legs at funny angles. I assumed that Rory had been drinking heavily and couldn’t carry himself any longer. I would have ignored Rory if he was just asleep beside a tree, but the way he was spread out was a worry, he was also close to the curb of a busy street that runs alongside Balboa. Just as we were discussing if we should call the police or medics a park ranger came along and made a call. Then a fire engine turned up with sirens screaming. Andrea and I had moved away to let the experts deal with Rory. Soon after an ambulance arrived and took Rory away. Let’s hope he’s okay and they let him keep his knife. It can be dangerous in Balboa with all the squirrels, volleyball players and runners. I been advertising in the area my skills to tackle computers and the issues they throw at us. I’ve set up an email address called SDITdoctor@gmail.com, no mails yet. I’ve also been experimenting with Podcasting and have set up a service to create eCasts, Podcasts for companies / local governments who want to distribute their messages. The email I’ve been using is mypodcastservice@gmail.com. There are lots of resources on the web for open source music (free) to use for podcasting. I’ve created some for personal use and have been listening to it. I think I’m quite good at it. I’m working on one for eServer to see how it turns out; if it’s okay I’ll put on my IBM site for the dot.com audience. I’ve picked up an internship with the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center: http://www.rhfleet.org/index.html in Balboa. I start with them on February 23rd. It may only be a few hours a week and I’m really looking forward to it. There is a club in La Jolla called ‘The Comedy Store’. According to their website David Letterman (not funny), Garry Shandling and Pauly Shore started their career there. The Comedy Store has an open mike on Sunday nights. I’m going to have a go at it. I’ve been working on ideas for material. I don’t expect to come out of it being hailed as the new Jerry Seinfeld or Larry David. As long as I get a few laughs make it out alive not being compared to the un-funny half of Hail and Pace then I’ll be happy and it will have been worth it. In a week or so I’m going to take the drivers exam at the DMV. It will be nice to have a California license. Oh yeah, who's the blog for? Its for the advertisers, that's who. All the best, Alan.

What I'm reading… What's on my Nano?   A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson****: I think I broke my brain! This is a great book that hopes to answer the oldest and biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Science with a smile.   An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life – The Dalai Lama****: Everyone should read some work by the Dalai Lama. How does one become a compassionate person? What are the mechanisms by which a selfish heart is transformed into a generous heart? His Holiness the Dalai Lama writes simply and powerfully about the eveyday Buddhist practice of compassion, offering a clear, practical, inspiring introduction to the Buddhist path to enlightenment. BINGO!     Antony & The Johnsons Bruce Springsteen Minutemen Mr. North The Onion Readio News Stone Roses