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Over5,000 visits to my blog. I’m totally chuffed!

It’s CLERKS not CLARKS

I was driving and listening to RTE Radio 1. Dave Fanning was doing reviews for a morning show. He’s really annoying because he doesn’t really appear to know a whole lot about movies and the reviews he provides don’t really deliver any insights.

He was talking about the movie Clearks 2. He kept referring to it as Clarks. Why? Because he knows F-all about movies, that’s probably why.

What did Dave think about the movie?

Who cares what he thinks!

Click here for a review of Clerks 2.

Absolute Beginners

I really enjoy when I’m listening to a piece of music / song / film and I suddenly hear something new in the work. It gives a whole new perspective to the song / music or whatever.

It’s hard to describe because it is not just the lyrics or even the piece of music, it might be tone in the voice or a note held higher or lower that I didn’t notice before. It might be that the work is linked to a different emotion or situation that I wouldn’t normally associate the music too, yet it works and feels so different.

For example, I was driving home and had some things occupying my mind. I had my iPod nano plugged in and I put it on shuffle. David Bowie’s Absolute Beginners came on. I have heard this song a lot and to be honest never gave it much attention. Today was different. I think the construction (listen to me sounding like I know what I’m talking about) in the song is brilliant and Bowie vocals are fantastic.

This happens to me a lot. I can get hyper-focused on something. It needed be the whole piece either; it could be one line, or just one section. It can happen with movies too.

This drives Maggie nuts; because it means that she gets to hear me talk about it – a lot, and for the first time, write about it!

Rock you like a hurricane!

Question: How can you make this

Sound like this ?

Answer: Let me use it.

My nephew got a Violin. I’m so proud. I might even take him touring around Europe to play for the royalty and the pope, but only if the Pope promises not to shoot his mouth off about you know what.

I’ve been trying it out. A long way to go. That’s all I can say at this stage.

In my head I look like this when I hold it.

No bowls, only soup

I arrived late to work this morning because I wanted to see how much longer it would take to get to the office when I left the house a little later. I left the house at approximately 8:00am. I arrived to work at 9:50am. It is a total distance of about 20 miles.

Do the math!

I went for a cup of tea and sat down with some of the other members of the team. This is how the conversation went with one of them:

Morning Time

Person: I’ve had a vision

Me: Good for you

Person: It’s about you and what you’ll do in your future

Me: I’m listening…

Person: You’re going to be a News Reader!

Me: Right so, I’m heading back to my desk.

Lunch Time

I wanted a bowl of soup to go along side my salad. As usual the canteen had no bowls for the soup. They did have a big urn of soup but no bowls. I filled a cardboard cup with soup and made do with it. It was far from bowls of soup I was raised!

I sat down with some people from the team. Some of them fascinated that I carried my tray of soup and salad with one hand. Then they decided that I would be a real asset for TGI Friday’s restaurant chain.

Newsreader to TGI waiter in one morning – brilliant!

The man made himself a dictionary…

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

Samuel Johnson born 1709, died 1784.

Slam Dunk! Now that is cool.

Stephon Marbury plays B-ball, that’s cool way to say Basketball, for the New York Knicks.  He’s put his name to a pair of low cost athletic wear and a $15 dollar basketball shoe.

The cool thing is that he is actually going to wear these $15 on the court.  Why?  Marbury says that he remembers what its like to grow up and not be accepted because you don’t have a pair of shoes that a major star has endorsed, yet costs over $100.

In an age when spots stars are over paid and out of touch with the people who pay the money to see them its good to see its not all about the money.

One lucky dentist…

My nephew came home talking about a plane crash involving his friend’s father. I only heard him mention it as I passed through the kitchen.  Later on as I was ironing a shirt for work I saw the video footage of said event on the news.
His friend’s father really is a lucky guy.  He’s the one who survived the incident.

The text of the newspaper:

This is the moment when Irish stunt pilot Eddie Goggins miraculously cheated death after a mid-air collision.  The tragedy happened during an air show in Malta yesterday as two planes collided over the sea.  Dublin dentist Mr. Goggins (37) was able to parachute to safety seconds after his Extra 200 single-engine plane collided with another single engine plane.  The pilot of the other plane, Gabor Varga of Sweden, was rushed to hospital but died soon afterwards.  The accident happened when one of the planes started losing altitude and slammed into the other.  Both fell into the sea near the entrance of Marsamxett Harbour in Valletta.  Mr. Goggins, from Stepaside in south county Dublin, is a seasoned stunt pilot who is the reigning Irish National Aerobatics Champion.

Irish Independent, Monday September 11th, 2006

Difficult (frisky) Boss Seeks Assistant

I was listening to the Quantum Leap, a radio show RTE, while driving home from work on Friday. I wasn’t really paying attention to anything on it, except for the one story that caught my attention.

Professor Stephen W. Hawking is looking for a graduate assistant.

The job brief:

• Managing Professor Hawking’s national and international travel. Expect to spend around 3 months out of the UK
• Preparation of lecture graphics and public speaking
• Dealing with the media and press
• Development of Professor Hawking’s computer systems
• Maintenance of computer and medical equipment
• Answering inquiries from the public and maintaining the website
• Departmental and administrative roles

It pays approximately 30,000 euro and recent graduates holding a Maths, Physics or Computer Science degree and a full driving licence. For further information please contact Graduate_Assistant@damtp.cam.ac.uk

That made me think back to one day back in 199x. I was working as a part time security guard. One evening I was in Jury’s hotel in Ballsbridge. I was lucky enough to see Professor Hawking because he came past me while I sitting behind a small desk near his room. I thought it was a cool experience.

Hawking wrote the book called ‘A Brief History of Time’.  To be honest, he could have been briefer!

Then I thought about other people who I’ve seen or met in my 3x years. There are not that many; here’s the list, in random order:

Professor Stephen W. Hawking, see above.

Colin Farrell, while with Maggie in Dublin. We saw him come out of the Shelbourne Hotel, light up a smoke and wander off with two guys in suits. Cool.

Shane McGowan, I’ve seen this guy twice, once in Jury’s hotel, same deal, me security guard, him famous. He was drunk on Martini. The next time I saw him, he was wandering along Grafton Street drunk as a skunk. I passed him and as I did I said “Good man Shane, look after yourself.” He looked at me, but I kept walking because I was in a hurry to do something. I bet he taught to himself, ‘I’ve seen that guy in Jury’s.’ I might have seen him again, at the premiere of “If I should fall from grace”, a movie about Shane, he was supposed to be at the premiere, but the director said that he was AWOL, thought to be somewhere in New York. Very Cool.

Damien Duff, Great footballer, my dad knows his dad. Cool.

Andrea Corr, singer with the Corrs. She tried to chat me up in a bar in Dundalk, when I was in college. I had no idea who she was at the time. The conversation went something like:

Me, (sitting at bar, Andrea tying to get to bar to order drink): Can I order something for you?

Her: sure. (gives me drink order)

Her: thanks, you’re very good.

Me: I am. I aim to please.

Her: Ha ha.

Me: What do you do?

Her: I sing in a band…

Me: Really I play a bit of guitar myself, (then I did some air guitar).

Her: …anyway, thanks for getting me the drink. Bye.

So that’s how it happened, she must have been thirsty or needed use the restroom becasue she dashed off really quickly. If my idiot mate wasn’t with me, well who knows where it might have gone. Pretty.

Bayley Silleck, director of Wired to Win, also worked on Ryan’s daughter in the 1970s in Ireland. I met him at the Fleet Science Center when I was a volunteer. Cool

Raymond Heffernan, he in the same building and I worked with him on a ‘kick off’ event for our business unit in 2001. You may have never heard of him, but he wrote the lyrics to ‘Angels’, the song that launched Robbie Williams’s career. Cool(ish).

Note. I most cases, I only saw these people, and the one’s I did speak to… well it was only for a second or two.

 

Bloggers Paradise – Coolio / Me

If I were Coolio, I’d write a song called “Bloggers Paradise” and maybe it would be used in a movie about a woman who teaches blogging in a high-school.

I’m not Collio, so I won’t.

Just saying, that’s all.

 

Close call

Saturday morning. I was with my brother and we were driving along the Stillorgan dual carriageway in Dublin. I’m not sure how I saw what I’m about to write, because it took place behind me. I don’t remember if my brother alerted me to the event because he noticed it in his rear view mirror, whatever, all I know is that I watched in awe and thinking, ‘that guy should be beaten up be everyone on that bus.’

What happened?

Two busses were moving driving in the Bus lane, a bus lane is like a car pool lane, except that it’s only for busses. There is a petrol (gas) station along the route. A car came from behind the bus at high speed, passed it, and cut right in front of the front bus to go into the garage. While the driver of the car conducted the maneuver he was braking hard.

The lead bus missed smashing into the car because of the quick reactions of the bus driver who had to also brake hard. The bus behind him also had to brake hard.

The driver of the lead bus stopped his bus and got out and went into the station after the moron driver. We were moving off down the road and this was all getting smaller and smaller as we moved on.

Its what didn’t happen in this incident that shocked me. If the bus did hit that car it would have made mince meat of it.

I can’t comment or make any assumption about the driver because I didn’t see who was driving. One assumption I could make with some certainty is that the diver of the bus needed a change of pants after the incident.

I know I would if it were me.

What’s it got to do with Paris?

I clicked on the button in my browser that says ‘Latest Headlines’ and one headline read ‘Paris regrets Iran nuclear stance‘. I never thought that Paris Hilton would have a stance on Iran and their nuclear issues.

Then I clicked on the link and I was right. The article had nothing to do with Miss Hilton and her regrets. I suppose I’ll have to wait for her ’story’ to come out to find out what her nuclear stance is.

I won’t hold my breath.

Artistic integrity

The UKs Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, creators of The Office & Extras,  create a Microsoft corporate video.

See it on Google Video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9076288729387457440&q=the+office+values