It's now officially December 26. I'm watching the Holiday Special of "Have I Got News For You!", pure hilarity:

"The Large Hadron Collider was supposed to prove that there is no God. So far, a man has been killed by a magnet, there's been a radiation leak and I'm pretty sure a plague of locusts."

The 25th was a good day for me. My brother and I stayed up on the 24th and watched "Into The Wild", which I had bought in HMV the same day for only €6, so I ended up going to bee at 12.30am. I tried every trick in the book to get some shut-eye, including downing a mug of Horlicks, but to no avail. I eventually gave up at 4am and just waltzed downstairs to open my presents.

I first opened my brother's gift to me, a fantastic new velvet guitar strap and some mini colognes (I love cologne!). Next up was my biggest present, Guitar Hero World Tour. The drums were a little awkward to set up, but I ploughed on. Next I slapped in Resistance: Fall Of Man which turned out to be a big bag of "meh", but it'll probably get better. I only bought it so that I'm understand the backstory in Resistance 2 (which I also bought). After Resistance, I tried Fallout 3. You know when something just "feels right"? This felt so right. It's honestly one of the most stunning games I've played so far. Some of the animation could be better, particularly in the third-person view; is my character wearing the 'Hover Boots' from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time? I wish I could start Fallout again though, I killed The Overseer, let Blake's mom die and then I killed Blake afterwards to spare myself some guilt. Blake (my childhood bully, apparently) asked me to help his mom who was being attacked. I said no, to which he hurled comments like "sick, twisted bastard" at me. I eventually cracked and said I'd help to which he started crying and started apologizing for bullying me as a kid. I was too late and so he was distraught and blamed me... it's easy to get sucked into these things.

I also got various other bits n' bobs such as the colognes mentioned in my previous blog entry. My aunt got me a gift voucher for Modern Music, guitar pedal here I come. Another game I bought is Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, but the location of that, along with my new belt, is anyone's guess...

It turns out that I make really good roast potatoes, so that was a nice feature of my likewise scrum-diddly-umptious Xmas dinner (Willy Wonka's was on).

I just arrived back from my aunt's house, where we spent the best part of two hours discussing our favorite comedians!

How was your day?

Xmas Shopping

Argh! Sorry I haven't written to this in a while, Jason will already know of this. Between crapping-up my French oral exam and my lack of PC access lately, I haven't been doing much internetting. Today I went Xmas shopping. I went with my mother, as I always do, but mainly do I could point out what things I want!

So far I've gotten (for PlayStation 3), Fallout 3, Resistance: Fall Of Man, Resistance 2 and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. I bought myself two colognes as well, Tommy Man and 212 Sexy Men by Carolina Herrera. The latter was bought because of my affection for the original, 212 Men, which Eoghan will remember me buying in Boots many aeons ago.

Speaking of Boots, Boots is crazy during the Holiday Season. I'm surprised they haven't declared it a war zone; people pushing and shoving to get certain products before they run out of stock, it's an odd site. But why wouldn't they? Boots are the true pioneers of PRE-Christmas sales, where you can find the most awesome products on sale at 50% off or more. For example, Tommy cost me €14, down from €30.

Since everyone loves some vibration every now and then, I'll be picking myself up a DUALSHOCK3 as well, hopefully tomorrow. It feels good, because I accidentally dropped my sole SIXAXIS onto a bare concrete floor a few days ago and while there are no visible scratches, I have a feeling of disownment towards it, but that's just me. I bought my mother's Xmas present too, Viva La Vida by Coldplay, she loves those guys.

We just did our Xmas grocery shopping. We were originally going to drive out to Joyces365 in Knocknacarra, but decided to shop in our local Dunnes instead. I won't dwell on this one, they're just groceries...

That's about all I have to say on this one. Merry Xmas, Happy Holidays and to all a good *sober* night.

If anyone out there has a PlayStation 3, my PSN ID is TheCosmicFrog. Feel free to add me!

Bye-Bye WiiLoaded

Short blog update today.

Today represented something big for me. I've resigned my position at a website which I have been faithful to for over 18 months now, WiiLoaded.com. During that time I reported news and wrote general opinion articles. I had to leave though, due to being bogged down by other duties, namely the Leaving Cert.

Wi-Fi in Galway

This has been on my mind for a while now, which you'll know if you hang around me.

The lack of Wi-Fi Hotspots in Galway is a complete disgrace. As a proud owner of an Apple iPod with internet browsing capabilities, my natural instinct is to use it whenever I want to check my emails, update my blog, check to see if Seán has left me any more irrelevant, poorly grammatized comments on Bebo etc. But to no avail. Wi-Fi in Galway City is as scarce as potatoes were in 1850; it's not of any value to me.

At the moment my prime hotspot is the benches outside Mothercare in Eyre Square Centre, which is usually infested with "'oul wans" anyway, leaving me to stand outside the 3G Store (which is where the Wi-Fi signal originates from) to peruse my doings.

So, you'd think that there would be free Wi-Fi in Eyre Square, right? The hottest, most social, most open-plan area in Galway City? Forget about it. There's four SSIDs called "Free Galway Wi-Fi" 1, 2, 3 and 4 around the Eyre Square area, but each of them fails the connection test every time: they're useless, and they've never been maintained.

Then there's Eircom. The now private bastards that make us pay for a high-speed 802.11b signal from their own ADSL phonebooth lines. It's an absolute joke. I emailed our former esteemed mayor, Niall Ó Brolcháin, with my thoughts, including a recommendation to install high-speed networks on to bus and rail services in and out of the city, to which he replied that he'd "pass on my ideas". Pass on my ideas to who, Niall, a brick wall? Would it sway you if I spray-painted it green?

New York City. You can't walk too far in NYC without bumping into a hundred different hotspots, run either by the thousands of offices that color the streets or the New York City Council itself. That city is truly electric.

Galway already has a firmly established 3G network, so what's the problem with Wi-Fi? If anything, Wi-Fi is more primitive in a technological sense, yet is utilized by so many more people.

Why is it that I can't sit in Eyre Square, sipping a Starbucks caramel frappuccino and browsing the web on my iPod?

...and don't blame the weather.

----------------
Now playing: R.E.M. - Man-Sized Wreath
via FoxyTunes

The Right-Hand Blog

This entire blog entry is based on notes I scribbled on my right-hand throughout the day:

• We didn't get a day off of school today, unlike every other school in the county. We were all pretty down-and-out, and needed a lift. Our delightful prinicpal deicded he would do the honors. He came on over the PA system and informed all of us that, although we weren't off today, we could still go to mass during our lunch break. Thanks Jimmy!
• I bought a new coat today. It's the first coat in years I am not embarrassed to wear. I bought it in Great Outdoors and it set me back €99.
• Andrew's breath smelled awful today.
• The Irish pork withdrawal means I can't get sausages in Elle's.
• My Irish teacher was out again today.

I think I've finally decided on what I want to do with my birthday money. At the moment I'm edging towards the Saitek Pro Flight Yoke, Pro Flight Rudder Pedals and Pro Flight Throttle Quadrant. After that time we used them in Atlantic Airventure, I just fell in love with it. Feck off X52... no wait, come back, I need you for Airbusing!

As for Xmas, I think I'll just go around buying random crap, as I did one happy Xmas a few years ago. I saw a nice jacket in Pariah (love that store!).

I Can't Believe It's Only Saturday

Seriously, it's been one day and it feels like it should be Wednesday already.

It was an average Friday. We went to Ag. Science. I got a surprisingly good 60% on my test. We then had study with Egghead in 306 with the juniors, all two of them. It was gawd-awful. People kept taking cracks at various things and he didn't give a shit.

The highlight was when one of the 5th-years looked at the ground beside my chair and said, "That is one messy bag...", which was promptly answered with a "That's what she said!" from the other side of the room :D

I glided through Biology grinds with Frank. That ninety minutes goes weirdly fast.

I was collected by my dad afterwards with information on our weekly Chinese takeaway. This time, "Michael the Electrician" was joining in, which was a nice addition to the dinner table, seeing as how my brother rarely graces dinner time with us anymore. Then again, "when we have dinner" is debatable. It's usually a, "Does anyone want dinner tonight?", sort of affair. I finished my Beef Fried Rice and turned on my phone. Then, the most wonderful thing in the world happened.

I noticed I had a voicemail. I never get voicemail. I never leave voicemail. I hate voicemail. So I checked my voicemail. It was a voicemail from Paul. The voicemail said to call him back "whenever". I replied to the voicemail with my house phone, which he didn't answer. I didn't leave a voicemail...

He called a few minutes later. It turned out that he was in Galway. I thought I was in for another cyclic weekend routine, but not anymore. I met him in squareyes, where I decided not to pay on until Rory came along. Paul kept asking if I would stay the night at his sister's house in Claregalway. I made my uncertainty very clear, until the clincher was belatedly announced by Paul...

...FREE HOUSE!

Of course, that changed everything. I jumped straight on to the bandwagon, as did Rory. Paul and I got a cab back to my house, where I gathered up some clothes and where we waited for Rory. We were all ready to walk back into town and order a cab out to Claregalway, splitting the fair. Instead, my dad offered us a lift, so we gladly accepted. First though, we went to the 24h Tesco in Galway Shopping Centre. Paul picked up some biscuits, milk and dog food, Rory bought a 2l bottle of Pepsi and I bought a can of Rockstar to compliment all the Rock Band which we planned on playing.

When we got to Claregalway, Paul let us in and introduced us to his sister's dog, Deuce. Deuce is now officially the bestest-dog-in-the-world. He can sit, stay, roll over, give individual paws and high-five on command. The rest of the night was pretty much a blur of pizza, Rock Band, Texas Hold-'Em, and trying our very best to watch Road Trip, before eventually giving up. The whole thing was filmed on handheld cameras, which annoyed me immensely. Also, Tom Green's acting license should be revoked and cremated. By 6.30am, we were all bored so we decided to hit-the-hay. I dibs'd the bed, so Rory had to make due with a sleeping bag. I slept soundly until 8am when I started feeling sick, so I got up. I'm one of those guys who, once he gets up, can't go back to bed again. So I ended up staying awake the next five-and-a-half hours until Rory woke up, spending my time watching Jokerman: Tommy Tiernan in America, Short Circuit on Blu-ray Disc, and playing Rock Band.

Eventually, the other two woke up, so we grabbed the 2.30pm bus into the city. €1.80 single-fair, not too shabby. We were all starving at this stage, so we headed down to squareyes to see if Jason or Tim wanted to go for lunch. Both were working until 4.30pm at the earliest, so Rory, Paul and I went to Ed's and got Meatball Parmigiana's etc. We migrated to Butler's Café shortly after, where I got a White Hot Chocolate with Caramel. Paul bought a Mocha for himself and Tim, something which Paul refers to as a "mutual understanding between Tim and I". We paid on for some cumputers and played some CoD5 Nazi Zombies. We reached Round 11 before we were dumped. Prior to us, a bunch of five-year olds got to Round 20, before they were cut-off from a mistake at the front desk. Apparently they "would have gotten way further!". Brats...

Eoghan and Andrew eventually wobbled in, and so joined us with Paul's awkward "forty-five minute" time slots for €3.75. James came in soon after and told us all about the gig he been at in The Gaf.

I finally got to watch my recording of the Final of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. Disappointed that George Takei didn't win, but happy for Joe Swash. Always good for a laugh!

Religion Rules... or something!

Today was a bit of a breather for us. We didn't have to go to school, but instead to the Society of African Missionaries House in Claregalway.

Our host was Fr. Benny McHale, an eccentric, trendy, upbeat old priest who genuinely did everything in his capacity to give us an "alternative" view on spirituality. This was the first time that we've ever had a religious retreat where I didn't fell "pushed" into any common feeling. That made me happy. One thing that definitely caught my attention, we didn't pray, once!

He started off by asking us, "What do we all need in life?". The answers he got were the usual ghey, nancy, "love, peace, happiness" etc. until Gerard Hanley said, "God". At this, Fr. Benny replied, "Ah feck off, God has no meaning in stuff like that!". If this were any other era he would be excommunicated from the priesthood and hung on the roof of Kilmainham Jail.

We spent the first part of the day talking about general life-related things. Benny made us all laugh hysterically at his bashful ripping of various accents, "Ze Jairmans, zay are gut at ze English, jah?". Almost every conversation ended with a, "did you ever the here the one about...", where he would tell us either a sexist, racist, secretarian or taboo joke.

We were taught the fundamentals on why we should "never hit a girl"; how we should never confide anything overly emotional in a girlfriend due to their natural instinct to share it with the world and much more.

The second part was more based around "why we need spiritualism", to which I found myself pretty lost. He posed the question, "if you knew there was no God, would it makes a difference?", leaving said 'difference' up to the imagination. If I can quote my friend Jason,

There's probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life

The lunch break was fun. About forty of us sat around playing and listening to guitar playing and singing. I played the only thing that could come into my head, Letters to God by Box Car Racer, which coincidentally seemed to fit the mood. Damn Mr. Doyle for tuning down his e string to D. Gerard never ceases to amaze me with his crowd-leading skills. All he had to do was play three power chords, sing the first verse of Wonderwall and he had most of Claregalway singing with him. If I wasn't so dumbfounded with on-the-spot embarrassment I would have played My Name is Jonas, a song I could have played from start-to-finish, but I'm not bitter about it, it was just some fun we had which nobody will remember after some heavy drinking sessions on Friday night.

The third and final section of the talk was focused around the demonic side of spiritualism. Intense, heated discussions on the Ouija Board and other black magic arts pursued. At this stage, we were all so tired that Fr. Benny assumed we had gone quiet due to the subject matter.

And now, I'm going to bed at 11pm, just like Fr. Benny told us to. But before I go, let me just post this picture of Niall Sweeney wearing a funny hat:

Birthday Update

I was so tired after Saturday that I couldn't find any will to update this blog at 1am. Yesterday I just forgot...

Saturday was a really great day. I gladly accepted James's offer of a free ticket to a Battle Of The Bands competition in the Róisín Dubh, presented by Jack Osbourne. The bands who played had a lot of guts, I'll give them that. You'd be hard-pressed to get me up on stage with my guitar. For the first fifteen minutes-or-so my eyes were transfixed on the singer of the first band. She was absolutely gorgeous!

The second band came a little unprepared. The lead guy wore a funny hat, which he took off for the second song. That left me with an empty feeling inside.

Next up was who we referred to as the "all-girl band". In actual fact, there name was "Full Moon at Noon", which promised something big. They were awful. But, as I said previous, I bowed my hat to them. They were the only all-girl band in the competition and that's no fun. My biggest chunk of pride goes to the lead girl, who had to play the whole first song by herself, just her petite voice and three power-chords to play with.

Next up was a hardcore punk band. Their tradition is for the crowd to shout out that "they suck", which of course we all did without reluctance. The main-man was the drummer. He had a punk attitude which got him into more trouble than it did get him admirers. Everyone thought he was a bit of a tool. His place in the band, besides being the only "punk" guy there, was debatable. I had meant to inform him that being a "drummer" doesn't just involve hitting the closed hi-hat at 1,000bpm. Still, they were good fun and the only band whose music I could relate to...

Last on the stage was the local favorites, "Trans-fucking-gress". "We are Transgress, we are from Loughrea, and we play rock n' roll music" *insert over-the-top guitar riff here*. They were meh, but James liked them and he has more of a taste for this stuff than I do.

I learned one valuable lesson that day. I don't like mosh-pits. My one little threat to Andrew now seems a little harsh, "I swear Andrew, if you push me into one of those I will punch you straight in the nose". At 4.45pm, I left the Róisín Dubh to go meet Paul off the train, which it turns out was delayed until 5.15, so I had plenty of time to go get a cup of tea, a jelly donut and play some Lux Touch on my iPod. Paul's train eventually arrived in at bang-on 5.15. When I saw him, I walked up to meet him, only to be blocked by that stupid barrier gate at Ceannt Station, but I saw him go out a side exit, so I ran outside to greet him. As far as Paul was concerned, a man with a blue-and-white striped shirt and unjustifiably short hair was running towards him waving and calling his name. When he realized that this was, in fact, Aaron with a horrible hairdo, we lovingly embraced with open expression; "hey", "hey", "squareyes?", "yeah".

We had just missed Jason, ohnoes! Not to worry, Christian gave us Jason's number and I texted him about the birthday soirée. We agreed to meet out in City Limits at 7pm, what an oversight...

Paul and I took the bus back to Newcastle, where my family greeted my buddy with open arms; "Paulhowsitgoingwillyouhaveacupofteayoumustbestarvingafterthetrainjourney
areyousure?". Good old Irish hospitality as Jason would say, and who are we to contest it? Rory refused to answer his phone on three occasions, so when he eventually did call Paul and I just screwed with him for ten minutes. Paul put on a Dublin accent and I played my harmonica into the mouthpiece. Next, Brian called down, so we hopped into my dad's car, collected Rory and drove to City Limits, where we were greeted by the angelic mugs of Eoghan, Andrew, James (who organized their own lift out, thanks again!), Jason and his girlfriend Mairéad. I payed for an hour of bowling spread over two lanes and the fun began!

As there was nine of us, the groups were uneven, so (thanks to Eoghan's advice) I decided to put Jason and Mairéad on the same lane, which made it seem less unbalanced. The groups were: Eoghan, James, Paul and I, & Jason, Mairéad, Brian, Andrew and Rory. I think that's right, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!

Jason (being your typical American) mauled us all at bowling. But it didn't matter, we all had fun. Paul's philosophy was "If I'm not going to win, then I might as well lose looking as stupid as possible and having the most fun while doing it." I'll savour that forever Paul. You found out the hard way that "backwards bowling" doesn't work as it well as it could.

At some stage during bowling, after all the cards had been given out from my school-friends, Jason and Mairéad surprised me with a gift which meant so much to me. They had baked pumpkin bread and decided to give it to me. Andrew was first to exclaim, "All right, hash cake!", which gave everyone a good laugh. I hadn't expected anyone but my school associates to give me gifts, so the gesture from Jason and Mairéad meant more to me than you could possibly imagine. Thanks again guys, the pumpkin bread is amazing!

After we finished bowling, we spent about thirty minutes walking around City Limits playing a few arcade games. On three occasions I failed in Ghost Squad by killing too many hostages. Oh come on, I only shot three of them! Paul, rather abruptly and with no pre-emptive warning, had to leave. It made me sad, because I thought were would all be going back to squareyes together for some dual zombie bashing in CoD5 and Left4Dead. We did eventually go back to squareyes, due in part to Mairéad offering lifts in her car to three of the guys who had been stranded for reasons I am unwilling to discuss andrew. Brian, Eoghan and I went to get pizza up in Ed's, where I was given a warm "happy birthday" by all the staff. That place really feels like home now. Brian, James and I played Guitar Hero World Tour, while the others played some CoD5 and L4D. No party poppers for me Greg? Poor show...

Thanks to all those who turned up, I hope you had a great night!
----------------
Now playing: R.E.M. - Orange Crush
via FoxyTunes

Finished My Exams, Birthday Tomorrow

Well, here I am, as promised. I've finished all my Xmas exams and it's now the weekend and my birthday. So how do I feel about all these emotional events occurring all at once?

Well quite frankly, I need to pee.

Without wanting to go into weird, funky, fetishy(?) details, let's just say that I have to go to the bathroom a lot more frequently than most people. As a result, I've had to cut coffee out of my diet completely, which is probably what got me into this mess in the first place. I went to the doctor today. He performed a "prick test" to get some blood from my finger, examined my urine sample (I don't have diabetes, yay!), checked my blood pressure and touched my abdomen. Naturally, I almost leaped off the bed when he started doing this because, as I always have to say to said doctor, I'm a twitchy bastard. My instructions were to go home, drink a ridiculous amount of water, see how many glasses I can down before I explode, and then email him the results. Yeah, at least I have hands, Eoghan!

Back to the exams. I can't remember the order we did them in, so expect random shenanigans:

• Agricultural Science: Harder than expected, but then, we haven't covered most of the course.
• Irish: Test was a standard Leaving Cert. paper, so I can't say "that bitch robbed us!", even if I'd like to. Didn't do either of the "Prós" or poetry.
  
• French: Everyone agreed that this paper could have been a lot worse, which is slightly worrying, because in the real Leaving Cert. it probably will be worse.
• Biology: I loved this test. Straightforward and no trip-ups. Eoghan O'Connor described it best, "Fair".
• English: We didn't have enough time for this exam. Didn't even make it to the Comparative Study.
• Maths: It was a very easy test, but I still slipped up here and there. Nothing that can't be learned!
• Geography: *insert picture of a man vomiting here*

Oh school...

So it's my Birthday "Party" tomorrow. Birthday is on Monday. A game or two of bowling with my friends, Rory, Eoghan, Andrew, Brian, Paul (I managed to swipe him down from Dublin), James, Jason from squareyes and I, afterwards we'll spend our night in squareyes. Brian, Paul and I will most likely be spending our monies on Guitar Hero World Tour or Rock Band 2.

...it was 430mls, by the way :)

----------------
Now playing: Weezer - The World Has Turned and Left Me Here
via FoxyTunes

Update to Talk About an Update

I'll be updating my blog tomorrow evening. I'll be sure to regale all my stories about the Xmas Exams and whatnot, so stay tuned sports fans!

----------------
Now playing: Sum 41 - Makes No Difference
via FoxyTunes

I'm Dying, Moe.

I'm really sorry this time for not updating my blog. I've been really sick since before the weekend.

And this week I've got all my Xmas exams. Tomorrow's Agricultural Science... wish me luck!

Instead, please check out my friend Eoghan's awesome blog update:
http://crazyslyhawk.livejournal.com/

The Big One

Hey. Sorry for not updating for the past.... few.... whatever it's been.

The important thing is that I have a big, massive, huge, gigantic, gargantuan blog post coming up soon. It's saved as a draft and pretty much explains a lot of what's going in "inside me".

All this week I've been studying, yes, studying for the first time ever. It feels surprisingly gooey and rewarding. It turns out Agricultural Science is a bag of piss to revise:


Why We Cull Animals

1. Udder Damage
2. Infertility
3. Disease
4. Injuries
5. Birthing problems
6. Bad tempered
7. Hard to manage
8. Old age
9. Reduced litter size
10. Reduced milk yield
11. Poor body conformation
12. Upgrade... O_O


Oh, bless that Frank Thornton and his Biology notes, really makes the task at hand easier. Let's hope our teacher doesn't screw us over in the exams. What the hell is active immunity?!

Aaron's Computer Gets Virus: World Divides Itself by Zero

Noooo!

How could this happen? My PC has a/multiple viruses.

The thing is, I don't have a clue how this happened. I didn't download anything weird lately, and I don't utilize LimeWire or .torrents

avast! antivirus is running a boottime scanner as I speak.

If you're religious, please pray to whatever gods you have at your disposal. If you're atheist, some form of monetary donation would be nice...

TheCosmicCocktail

This is my HowTo for one of my homemade drinks, which I call TheCosmicCocktail.

This can be served as either an alcoholic or non-alcoholic refresher.


Ingredients:
makes one pint

• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• Juice of 1/3 an orange
• Ice-water
• Salt
• Lots of crushed ice!
• Vodka (optional) OR
• Fruit schnapps (optional)
  

Directions:

1. Acquire fresh lemon and orange juices using the same juicer. Juice the lemon first and then the orange, allowing the orange juice to mingle with the lemon juice.
2. Place the crushed ice (two ice trays-worth seems good) into the pint glass.
3. Sprinkle a tiny amount of salt over the top of the ice. Less than a fingertip-pinch will do. This causes it to stick together.
4. Pour the lemon/orange juice mixture over the crushed ice.
5. (Optional step) Add a shot-glass amount of vodka/fruit schnapps to the juice.
6. Fill to the top with ice-water.
7. Finish with a bendy straw and salt the rim for effect.

Good for a hot day, or just to remind yourself that you're alive!

----------------
Now playing: Ramones - My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down (Bonzo Goes To Bitburg)
via FoxyTunes

Max Pain...

My alarm didn't go off this morning. Isn't it annoying when alarms do that? Nevertheless, my internal clock (girls aren't the only ones that have these...) told me to wake up fifteen minutes after my alarm was going to, so all was good.

Was dragged to Max Payne today. 'Twas an absolute and utter shitfest all the way through. I couldn't believe how awful one movie can be. Mark Wahlberg was, as per usual, abysmal in his rendition of Max Payne. And this is coming from someone who has never even played the video game series, that's just how awful he was in his role.

The plot?
Max Payne's wife is murdered. Max finds out who it was, and kills him. Then there's a twist, and it turns out it was someone else who did the deed, so Max kills him too.

The action?
Half-assed, overused scenes of Max overpowering his enemies and asking if they'd "seen this woman?".

Afterwards, we went to Ed's so I could grab a bite to eat; Meatball Parmigiana. It's a Subway beater, by miles. Then to squareyes for some zombie bashing, COD5-style.

Andrew's dad is quite the informative man. He explained to us how singers used to take cocaine "up their ass" so as not to ruin their voices... touché.

It's been a bad day, please don't take a picture (Steve).

Please check out my good friend Jason's newly revamped blog at www.JasonParmele.com

...and while you're at it, check out my other friend James' blog, right here on Blogger, at James-Brod.blogspot.com

----------------
Now playing: R.E.M. - Bad Day
via FoxyTunes

Guitar Hero and Zombies

Woo, what a fun day. We decided to book Guitar Hero: World Tour in squareyes again.

On this occasion, it was Andrew, Rory, Steve and I. Seán joined us for the first hour, but was happy to leave after that amount of time from what I could see. Rather than talking about, I'm going to let the following pictures, taken with Steve's swanky new camera, do said talking:














Shortly after, Eoghan joined us, so we played some Call Of Duty: World at War with the zombies mode. Eoghan, Steve and I made it to Round 8, but the winners were Jimmy and Stephen who got to Round 19. Nazi Zombies FTW...

----------------
Now playing: Thin Lizzy - Whisky In The Jar
via FoxyTunes

Economic Cutbacks

This blog entry probably won't be long. Half-way through my Irish grind, there was a loud "crack" noise and all the sockets in the house stopped working simultaneously. Several months later, the electrician arrived and fixed the problem. All I heard was, "Arrah, I shouldn't have done that, that was stupid, alright...". I swift showing off the back of one's hand and he was away. What a lovely man!

Went to see a movie today for school, called Man On Wire. The teachers mistakenly branded it as a "French film", but it was no more than a movie about a French guy, called Phillipe Petit. Phillipe illegally erected a tightrope between the North and South towers of the World Trade Center and walked across it multiple times. He was eventually arrested and tried, but the only thing they could charge him with was trespassing and public disturbance (hence why we have so many tightrope walkers in Mountjoy today). The judge said he would drop all the charges if Phillipe performed a free juggling show for New York children. His assistant was permanently excommunicated and expelled from the United States of America. How fair is that?

The film itself was genuinely good. It was easy to ignore all the shoutings of "fat knob!" and slurping noises every time the long-skirted girls would pass by, so I got more than I expected to out of it. The interviews with those involved were excellent. Phillipe Petit was a genuinely likable character, who had the tendency to "act out" what really happened, while he was chatting.

And that's where I'll take my leave. Goodbye and good luck!

----------------
Now playing: R.E.M. - Imitation Of Life
via FoxyTunes

The 12.40

Irish, Biology, History, English, French, then we got to leave that pee-pee soaked heck-hole!

After school, I made my way up to Modern Music, where I bought some acoustic guitar strings for my "project". That guy is so cool, he always knocks money off of his own prices; gave me a 50c discount on said strings.

Apres-cela, James wanted lunch, so we waited in the Corn Store while he ordered (and inevitably wolfed down) a something-something-something in Charcoal Grill. Whatever it was, it sounded delicious. Man, I love that place, but these sacks of flab won't turn into pecks by themselves [/self-thought].

We then walked up to HMV, casually ignoring GameStop. I was about to walk out, when I noticed the new sale they have; "Two CDs for €15". The difference between this and their last sale is that this one actually consisted of good CDs. As a result, I bought myself "Two CDs for €15", them being In Time: The Best Of R.E.M. 1988-2003 and Thin Lizzy: Greatest Hits, the latter bought after several well-reputed recommendations from Eoghan. Check out Eoghan's blog at http://crazyslyhawk.livejournal.com/

Since then I've just been kicking around my house, trying to ignore the flicking on and off of the TV as the power keeps going (house re-wiring in progress...), and working on my new guitar. The good news is that it's finished, after many heart-breaking truss rod realignments and restringing. I've always been useless at guitar restringing. What happens is that I begin turning the machine head, hearing the pitch getting higher, higher, higher, lower(?), lower, lower, SNAP, higher, higher, lower, SNAP, until I eventually give up and throw the guitar down in frustration.

And now here it is, all shiny and polished, bearing its several war wounds and the crack on the neck that just screams, "I was dropped off a stage!".

Bean mhaith, fear maith...

----------------
Now playing: R.E.M. - Man On The Moon
via FoxyTunes

There's a "Get a Mac" UK Version...

...no, I ain't kidding, check 'em out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuHGThfbQog
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrX4rEtvp1k

...and many more!

I have to admit, I didn't like it at first. But after a while, Mitchell and Webb seemed to catch my funny bone just as much as the original US Get a Mac ads did. Is it just me, however, or does Webb not seem "sexy enough" for the position of Mac? I feel like he should be wearing a shirt or shades or something, I don't know...

...why do I keep using dots?

Guitar lessons were fun today. Trying to trudge through Waiting for an Alibi by Thin Lizzy. This week I'm learning the solo, but over the coming weeks I'll be recording the second guitar, rhythm and then the bass. Check out the song and the solo at 2.04:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUubo0Xz29I

My little acoustic guitar project is starting to take shape. I removed the old strings, cleaned out the hollows, polished it and adjusted the truss rod to give me a more lowered action. The strings were way too high when I got it.

Tomorrow, I might see about buying strings, athough perhaps I'll put it off until Saturday..

...ohshithalfdaytomorrow!!!

----------------
Now playing: R.E.M. - It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
via FoxyTunes

Down at the Old Swimming Hole Pt. 2

Went to bed last night pretty damn late (5.30am) so I was guaranteed to wake up late this morning. I eventually got up at 1pm and had myself some breakfast, yes, at 1pm.

Not long after, I replied to a text Rory had sent me earlier regarding what we were "doing today", i.e. if we were going to the gym or not. I had myself a protein-rich meal of grilled fat-less bacon and went down to the NUIG Kingfisher leisure center. The public access hours are 2-4pm, and we got there at 3pm.

We spent 30 minutes in the gym upstairs. I ran a mile, as did Rory, himself later doing 5km on the bikes, while I did some weights. I downed a bottle of orange Powerade, Rory opted for the blue option. Nothing beats the grape-flavored Powerade they sell in the US though...
One thing I don't like about the NUIG gym is how hard it is to breathe in there. The air seems pretty stale.

After that, we decided to spend the last half-hour in the pool. Laughingly, that's about the time we spent in the sauna. Nobody told us to get out or prodded us for membership details so we stayed in the pool area for 1h30m.

Let's hope nobody cares next Sunday!

----------------
Now playing: The Gin Club - Sometimes Sober
via FoxyTunes

Guitar Hero World Tour For The Win (in the fight against Rock Band)

So today started out like any other Irish boy's morning. Waking up at 12.30pm, I heard the weather before I saw it...

I made myself some lunch, having officially missed breakfast now. Over-roasted chicken goujons and grilled bacon, as part of my recent protein-rich diet. After that, I got into contact with Rory and Brian, where we eventually decided to book Guitar Hero: World Tour in squareyes for two hours.

When we arrived, my initial expectations weren't so high, considering the bashing everyone seems to be giving it lately. Added to the fact that squareyes don't yet have the official Guitar Hero drums yet, so we had to suffice with the Rock Band ones (which are still perfectly adequate for the job at hand).

Initial expectations = Erased from existence. As soon as I picked up the new guitar I knew it was going to be awesome. Since Activision's contract with Gibson had expired, many feared that the new in-house guitars would be worse. The fact of the matter is, they are so much better it's not even a debatable subject. The new whammy bar is the same length as the Rock Band one, but in the same position as the GH3 one and just as stiff. The strum bar is an improvement over the GH3 one, as they've decided to add the RB-esque "bump" to the tip of the 'bar to make your thumb slip less easily. The 'bar is the same stiffness as the GH3 one and has that trademark "click click" noise we all loved so much about the Guitar Hero guitars. The bridge position Star Power button is awesome, so natural. The buttons aren't slippery like the RB guitar. The touch pad will be great once I figure out how to use the damn thing!

In-game gameplay is just as functional. The fact that if one band member fails, the whole band fails is a bit of a bummer, but it's far harder to fail the GH:WT than in Rock Band, so it's not actually that much of a problem. I definitely don't like the pooled Star Power (Rory kept stealing my hard-earned power!), but I'll get over it. Naturally, the whole game has a more "badass" theme to it than the more glamorous Rock Band, but that was always the GH-way. I like the way there's more of an emphasis on snare/tom-tom layout than the RB layout of cymbals and high-hats. As Brian said, there tends to more of an emphasis on the right-hand side of the drums in GH:WT than in RB, mainly due to one of the toms being over there (compared to the crash cymbal in RB). Two cans of Rockstar/Monster each and two hours later we parted ways. Well actually, we got the same bus home so we parted ways after the bus dropped Brian and I in Newcastle. Poor Rory was left to fend for himself in the dark.

When I got home, I was in for a nice surprise. My uncle gave me an old acoustic guitar he didn't want, so now I have a little side project. The guitar is in reasonably good condition, but needs some new strings, some dusting-down, polishing and a truss-rod adjustment, which isn't going to be easy since there's a superglued crack along the base of the neck. Apparently it was played by some famous Irish musician by the name of Mick Moloney, by whom it accidentally fell off stage during a gig and the neck snapped, where it was picked up by said uncle.

I was feeling bored so I went up to visit James, Eoghan and Andrew (who doesn't want me to mention him in my blog *middle finger*).

And now I'm writing to my blog.

Brother's Grads... or something

I only have to be in school tomorrow until 12.30pm, woo!

Then it's off for a four-course meal at the Hotel Meyrick.

And Horlicksmakesmesleepy...';/#]

----------------
Now playing: Weezer - My Name Is Jonas
via FoxyTunes

I Don't Even Have Honours Maths...

Not a large blog update today, as such. Doing some cleaning, not to mention I just finished a (slightly excessive) 1h30m Irish lesson.

Damn you Sky News, I turned you on at 6am only to see "Obama Wins Election" slapped in my face. I missed all the excitement, but hey, there's always next time. Rudi 2012!

I'm suing McCambridges. The spoon they gave me with my soup was too sharp at the edges and sliced up my gums pretty badly so now I can't eat.

Never fear! I'm not getting lazy. I still love writing to my blog, I'm just a little upside-down this week. Keep checking back everyday, because I should have something up, even if it's only something small like this.

I think I'm officially leaving Higher-Level French now. It's just too tough and I can't afford to fail a language in the Leaving Cert.

I paid for my trip to the Shannon Aerospace Centre on November 18, which should be interesting since it's one of the few things that gives me any buzz whatsoever (aeronautical engineering and aerofoil science, that is). I just love the fundamentals of a jet engine; air comes in, air gets blown out faster and hotter.

In fact, even simpler is a new type of engine which, it's hoped, will eventually replace present-day turbofan jets when the oil runs out. It's called the SCramjet (Supersonic Combustion Ramjet) and its proposed fuel is liquid hydrogen. It's essentially a mini-rocket, therefore it has no moving parts. It's shaped like funnel, so the air compresses itself.

The concept is hilariously amateur:
Air comes in, squeezes itself, gets mixed with fuel, pushes itself out.



The good news in all this? Shannon to Ibiza in 20 minutes!
The bad news? Ryanair has hedged enough fuel to last those 737s another millenia or two...

----------------
Now playing: Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly
via FoxyTunes

US Election Tomorrow...

...and my alarm is set for 5.40am, I want to be there as soon as the polling stops!

I find it aggravating that tomorrow I have to go to school where the results of the election will, no doubt, be broadcast aloud by some annoying teacher for all to hear and shout about. I'd much rather be at home sitting in front of the TV, sipping casually on a mug of Horlicks, but as Frank Sinatra would say (if he hadn't smoked himself to his own demise), "that's life".

Note to self - bring in absence note for Mr. Herrick tomorrow...

I like the teacher we have for study on Tuesdays, he lets me read my book in peace.

Well, it's still a mess here and I'm cramped and uncomfortable, so I'm going to have to cut this blog short again. I'm just going to sit here for a few moments playing my harmonica, then I'm going to bed since I have to be up early.

Bye.

----------------
Now playing: Guns N' Roses - Paradise City
via FoxyTunes

She Forgot About Detention!

Remember that detention I mentioned earlier in my blogging days? Well she forgot about it!


...I hope O_O

So anyway, sorry for not writing to my blog over the last two days (Rory has been reminding me). My house has been a complete mess as we're doing some renovations. I actually arrived home today to see my bare concrete floor strewn with holes and pits.

So I went to see Quantum Of Solace on Saturday. Being the picky bastard I am, I kept picking holes at the tiniest problems which I had with it. Comprehensive list below:

• It was too short. I don't care what the critics thought of Casino Royale, Quantum was too brief.
• Daniel Craig took his top off and made me feel worthless, again...
• The cameraman should have been shot. If this is "modern camerawork" I'm never watching another action movie. The nosebleed-inducing, scene-shift effect made it so that I completely misunderstood the "Eco-Hotel" part.
• The story felt like a bit of a bum-note after the masterpiece that was Casino Royale. There was something missing. Maybe it's time to bring back Moneypenny and Q (as long as they're not played by Samantha Bond and John Cleese respectively).
• There was a severe lack of humor in this iteration. What few jokes were apparent were absolutely hilarious; there wasn't a single person in the cinema that didn't shed a tear when Bond flipped the bike up from under the motorcyclist.

School was horrible today. You could feel the exhaustion in the air like a humid blanket. One of the teachers wouldn't let me sleep during one of the French classes and another teacher wouldn't let me read a book during study. I was so tired I woudn't have studied anyway!

Gym and McCambridges at lunch, as per usual. Once again, they had tomato soup, so I had to go for a carb-filled ciabatta. Poor me, indeed...

I had to move my PC into my room during these renovations, so bedtime blogging is probably going to happen most of this week.

Well, I'm off to make myself a nice cup of Horlicks.

----------------
Now playing: Thin Lizzy - Chinatown
via FoxyTunes

Halloween

Well, another Halloween has passed without anybody really noticing (for most people it's the casual inhuman drunkeness killing vital areas of the brain needed for memory...).

I woke up too late at 2pm. I realized that Paul, Rory, "Scanner" and "Lally" had gone to see Quantum Of Solace in the Eye Cinema. I didn't mind since I'm going to see it tomorrow with my brother. I decided to cycle out there for 4pm, when I knew the movie was over. When I met them, "Scanner" refused to give Paul a lift back to town, then sped off at an excessive pace out of the underground parking lot ("what an awesome guy", according to Paul).

We made our way into the city where, naturally, we went to squareyes. After not spending very long there, we migrated to...................................Ed's....................................
I got the Chicken Parmigiana on Paul's recommendation. It was good, but it's no Meatball Parmigiana! The plate of french fries we got between us would feed a famine worth of potato fanboys <3 Ed

Lally left our side to go to work, so Paul, Rory and I went back to squareyes. Paul and I played Rory and Brian in a game of Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, whom the former won. Paul decided to go to a fancy dress party dressed as a box so Greg gave him what he was looking for, a box (...in the jaw).

So Paul, Rory, the box and I made our way up to the Dunnes Stores Off License in Eyre Square where Pail searched for the ingredients required for the perfect Sex On The Beach, which is (apparently) orange juice, cranberry juice, vodka and peach liquor, as a matter of fact. Rory took the bus home, while Paul, the box and I waited for Scanner to give the two of them a lift home. When he arrived I cycled home.

Later I made my way up to Dangan. I met up with Eoghan and Andrew. We collected Rory down in Newcastle and escorted him past all the crowds up to Dangan Heights. But first, we passed through Tudor Lawn, where the action was really happening. Two paddywagons entered the estate and made an attempt to scare off all the "randy youths". As I kept reiterating, Dangan teens are harmless, they're upper-middle class for crying our loud!

The Gardai shone a light at us as we passed to which I responded by walking up close to the van, stopping and putting on a pair of sunglasses (I'm well 'ard, I am). As we walked up, they stopped us again to say something. Eoghan almost got us killed by talking thick to one of the ignorant Gards; "Limerick is that way, is it boss?". We went up to see what was happening with the bonfire. Shortly after we arrived, "the shades" came and everyone ran screaming like pussies away.

We ascended to Andrew's house where we were going to watch some Asian-related porno horror film, but eventually decided to go BACK down to my house. There, we just played some GTAIV and looked up sporadic YouTube videos and, of course, FAIL Blog!

How did you spend your Halloween?

No Ed's Today

Note - this is Thursday's blog entry

This blog entry is going to be pretty short since I'm tired today. I had to wake up at 6.45am to go to Lidl to buy a guitar stand. I also bought a harmonica just for peeps...

About 8 hours later I met up with Paul, who had just bought his new Samsung Tocco cell-phone. Rory and Brian eventually joined us and we spent most of the day in squareyes playing Far Cry 2 and Crysis Wars.

Tomorrow is Halloween so that should be fun...

...and now off to the sack zzzzzzzzz

----------------
Now playing: The Gin Club - Gas Guzzler
via FoxyTunes

Admit it Paul, you don't work in Dublin!

So as some of you may know, I'm a member of something called a "Virtual Airline", which is a virtual version of a real airline, based around Microsoft Flight Simulator. I'm currently at the rank of Captain and fly out of the Philadelphia International Airport hub. Here's the low-down (yes, this is how we speak in Philly):

A week-or-so ago I applied for the position of Philadelphia [KPHL] Hub Manager and tonight I find out whether or not I got the job. I'm running against the current Assistant Hub Manager, so first preference may be given to him. I don't mind, he's a great guy. If he receives the job, I'll apply for his old position and work my way up the ranks. Wish me luck in my ventures, I'll let you know how I get on!

UPDATE - I didn't get the position, however I was offered the position of Philadelphia Int'l Airport Assistant Hub Manager, which I graciously accepted. Thanks Steve!

Paul decided to come down again today. I was happy to hear that he got upgraded to First Class. He uses the Iarnróid Éireann service so often that they owe him at this stage. He's getting his new Samsung Tocco cell phone tomorrow, so he has that to look forward to. Since he's finally getting away from O2, I'll be able to hear him whenever I call him!

As per usual, we met Rory in town at "the flag shop", where we searched perilously for a Canadian flag, but to no avail. Damn flag shop.

*Speaking of which, I received my United States of America flag yesterday, it's huge! I'm going to need to borrow a 90ft pole, anyone?*

We made our way to squareyes, where yer wan upstairs and the bald guy were working (we're not very good with names...). Who would be there but our stalker friend "Drebin"? An hour of Crysis Wars with Tim, Rory, Paul, Jason, Drebin, Leviski, Seán and I later, the three of us went to... go on, take a guess, seriously, use the space below to guess where we went:

----------------------------------------

---> Insert Guesses Here <---

----------------------------------------

Ed's of course! Rather than going for another pizza, I opted for a sandwich along with Paul. I got the Meatball Parmigiana (homemade meatballs, homemade marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese), Paul got the Chicken Parmigiana. Rory got a pizza slice and fries. We waved goodbye to Ed and the gang, and made our way back to squareyes.

When we arrived, we payed on for another hour. Eoin King, Eoin Tarmey, Tahdg Leader and Andrew Fallon were there from school, so we said our "hello"s. They were stealing Rock Band right out from under us!

We played Far Cry 2 for an hour (sniper sounds FTW!) and then left. Far Cry without Jason just isn't Far Cry at all...

Paul went to get his bus and Rory and I walked/cycled home.

Pretty straightforward and fun day, too bad about the weather.

----------------
Now playing: The Gin Club - Campus Blues
via FoxyTunes

Down at the Old Swimming Hole

Did anyone else think that today was miserable? In Galway today, it was dark and gloomy overhead. I didn't leave the house until 6.30pm.

When I eventually did leave, Rory and I went swimming and gyming down at the new NUIG Kingfisher Club. I tried to round up the rest of the idiots, but they were too busy being themselves to come along, how selfish!

When we got there, the woman told us in a stern, authoritative tone that "you have to come in at public access hours". In other words, they round up all the local plebs and dump them in together for an hour at 8.30pm, just because we refuse to pay the €5xx registration fee. We walked up to Centra Newcastle and bought Nutri-Grain bars (yes Eoghan, they are better than Fruit-n'-Grains or whatever they're called!). When we got back, I killed 30 minutes playing with the Apps on my iPod. A queue was starting to form, so we joined it. Who else would be standing in said line but Feargal Walsh! I knew something smelled like Protein Shakes...

I have to hand it to the NUIG, they have some serious gym equipment. Threadmills with built in cable television and iPod support (not iPod touch unfortunately...), virtual instructors, terrain simulation etc. etc. Whenever I'm back I'll check out the weights and machines. This time I was only experimenting.

Next up was the pool. Good changing facilities, but the place was not designed with capacity in mind. As one of my family friends said, they had the chance to build a 50m olympic swimming pool, but instead chose to go with the standard old 25m, like every other damn place in the city. The sauna and steam room is the worst part, completely packed. As well as that, I was horrified to see that it wasn't a "real sauna" per se, but just a very hot wooden box; there was no hot coals. However, there was an ornamental wooden bucket so that you could pretend there was coals!

At 9.30pm, they had no hesitation to kick us all out. The worker actually said, "Everyone get out of the pool and get changed", which was a bit rude for my liking.

Afterwards, Rory and I walked (yes walked, at 10pm in the freezing cold, still partially wet) back to his house, where we ordered ahead some pizza from Ed's.

It wasn't such a bad day after all...

...avast! update - THREE TROJANS?!?


----------------
Now playing: Metallica - Enter Sandman
via FoxyTunes

Cold Snap

Sure is cold these days, here's hoping it goes away, or "fecks off" by Halloween.

Speaking of 'ween, does anyone know of any decent fancy-dresses coming up? I totally want to dress up as Eddie Hobbs and get my head kicked in by public-sector employees!

My phone told me to wake up at 12 noon and so that's what I did. I spent the next three hours-and-a-bit eating Corn Flakes and flying from Charlotte, NC to Philadelphia, PA in Flight Simulator.

Here's another somewhat brilliant musing:
How come when there's absolutely nothing to eat in the house, there's always a box of Kelloggs Corn Flakes?

After that, I decided to call up to Eoghan's house. It was so cold that I had to wear a long-sleeve shirt, a jacket and even my trusty shades just to protect my body and eyes from the temperatures. Five minutes later, I arrived at his house in Dangan on my bike. By coincidence, he was also leaving to go for a stroll, so I said I'd join him. We called for James (who thanked us for getting him out of some involuntary out-of-season spring cleaning) and then called on Andrew, who seemed from the get-go a little flustered at the fact that we were bothering him during his study-hours. The four of us went for a stroll through the Dangan sports ground, Corrib Village and eventually we stopped at Centra, Newcastle for some munchies. As well as this, I bought myself a jar of Horlicks, the stuff that I've been fascinated with since yesterday's wiki'ing session.

Since then I've just been messing around on my PC, listening to some protest songs and such, you know how it is.

What the hell happened in tonight's The Apprentice on TV3? Mark basically convinced Bill to fire him; "Ah go on Bill".

I recorded some show on Channel 4 this evening, Embarrassing Teenage Bodies. Sounds fun, so I'm going to watch it. Stay in school, or work, or prison or whatever... (-:

Before you go, check out my friend Eoghan's (mentioned in this blog entry) journal at http://crazyslyhawk.livejournal.com

How was your day? Leave comments below!

----------------
Now playing: The Gin Club - Pirate Song
via FoxyTunes

What's the Cereal Number?

Note - This is Sunday's blog update, I just finished it at 1am-ish on Monday.

What a depressing day.

A few months ago, Rory's mother gave him the choice of either:

A) Keeping the UPC box, but losing the Hi-Speed Internet
B) Keeping the Internet, but losing the UPC box, or...
C) Keeping both, but losing the family dog.

Rory loved that Timmy... (that's what he named his UPC box).

As a result, he decided he would watch the Liverpool vs. Chelsea match at squareyes, mooching off of their Sky Sports. Eventually breaking under Tim's threats of uberpwnage all-round, we bought a few hours. I used this time to continue with my FIFA09 career, while Chelsea performed a massive last minute turnaround, winning the game 3-1...........

But before we could walk to squareyes, Rory wanted to collect his bike, where it had been locked outside the school since Friday. All he found was a smashed bike-lock. We walked up to Mill St. Garda Station and reported a bicycle theft to a less-than-enthusiastic Garda:

"What size is it?"
- "It's a small mountain bike."

"What color is it?"
- "Black, red and silver."

"What's the serial number?"
- "...I don't know."

I stopped talking when the Garda looked suspicious at me answering all of the questions!

Paul came in at 3.30pm, Brian yelled at him, calling him several Airbus-related terms. All I heard was the word "graphics card" spat out every few seconds, so I could care less what it was about. Both of them took a cab back to Newcastle to play with their graphics cards, so Rory and I took this time to go get lunch in Ed's.; pizza slice with meatballs.

Brian and Paul eventually came back and were best friends once again (we can only assume that Brian gave him the good lovin'). I was still hungry, so I ate an entire packet of Fig Rolls. Use the empty space below to judge me:

------------------------------

---> INSERT JUDGE HERE <---

------------------------------

The four of us proceeded to play Rock Band for an hour. That, plus a few games of Far Cry 2 and Crysis Wars was just about all we did worth blogging about.

Rory and I walked with Paul to his train back up to Dublin *sniff* and I held his tea while he scrambled maddeningly for his ticket. Wouldn't you know that I'd be talking to him on MSN less than four hours later... Boy, can he run!

Well, I must depart. I've got a recorded episode of Fringe to watch!


----------------
Now playing: Sigur Rós - Hoppípolla
via FoxyTunes

...and then, it rained.

Oh, what a buzz-kill. I can accept some rain every now and then, but today was just a joke. For the first time ever, I brought an umbrella with me (one of those fold-up ones, not a man-brella).

On waking up at 11.34am, I had a shower and managed to pull myself into some clothes. Breakfast this morning felt very continental; leftover Ed's from last night.

After several failed attempts to create a Flight Simulator server, Rory and I eventually decided to get our respective 2.15pm buses into the city, to meet up with Paul and Brian. Of course, we congregated in our usual congregate, squareyes, a "2,000sq.ft Underground Gaming Centre". We took Greg's word and played Crysis Wars, which was surprisingly brilliant. Then Eoghan, James and Andrew joined us. I've managed to roll Andrew off of Portal and on to Half-Life 2, something I'm very proud of.

After two hours-or-so of that, our fuel reserves ran so low that all the Rockstar, Red Bull and Burn in the world couldn't possibly fill us up. There was only one logical answer, Charcoal Grill on Cross St.
Rory and I got a doner burger and fries, Andrew got cheese fries, as did James, and Paul got his wet dream-inducing chicken fillet burger. Eoghan just sat there and breathed our air...

We eventually made our way half-heartedly back to squareyes. Paul had to go, and since we rely so much on Paul to make everything good, the night collapsed in on itself. 4,500 heart beats, 6 conversations and 1 can of Rockstar later, Rory, Andrew, James, Eoghan and I decided to leave. We said goodbye to Rory who had to go home and let his dog pee and we walked to our usual extraction point, the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas, or "The Cathedral". Andrew called 1800-REVERSE and ordered us a lift home. Andrew's mother eventually arrived with the "Oh she brought the blue car" car, which smelled pleasantly like an airplane toilet (yes, I really like planes). The car needed juice, so we pulled up at the nearest gas station. I had to rescue Andrew from the "impossible fuel cap".

Remember this simple rule guys:

Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty


----------------
Now playing: Weezer - The Good Life
via FoxyTunes

Put it Back, Frank!

Today felt remarkably useless, but it's just the beginning of the mid-term, I guess.

Waking up at 12.14pm, my initial thought was, "Haha, those suckers in school, learning...", but honestly, school would have went down well today. Why? Free squareyes vouchers! My only major gripe was that Tim misspelled the value of the voucher as "Six Euros", rather than the generally accepted "Six Euro". I suppose we can't lay all the blame on him though, he is Canadian after all...

Anyway, I got out of bed and being the good friend I am, my first thought was, "OhshitPaul!". I cycled into the city to "meet Paul off the train". Realistically, it was two hours later in squareyes, during my newly started Manager Mode in FIFA09. Did I mention that Ronan gave Rory and I free vouchers regardless since we're such regular customers? I just lost a few social rep points in that last sentence.

I dragged Paul and Rory back to my house, where I educated Paul in the art-of-the-Airbus. I can't complain; unlike Rory, Paul put the plane on the ground with plenty of runway left. Let's just say the 'craft itself should have been slightly more "left" on the asphalt though!

Paul left shortly after to go out with his drinking buddies, while I departed for my Biology grinds with the man himself, Frank Thornton. Seriously, this guy wrote the book on one-liners:

"Guys, what would you say if I whipped out my... *heads spring up* ...Calvin Klein?"

*sighs of relief from co-ed class*

Plus, some of the comments are just hilarious:
"Frank, if somebody drank loads of water and didn't go to the bathroom, would they die?"
"Eh..... yeah, probably..."

Frank never ceases with his ability to compare just about anything with "a bunch of sperm-cells". A good guy, a bad man...

The climax to this day has to be the pizza. I ordered it at 7.42pm from Ed's New York Pizza. The guy at the end of the line said, "It's going to be at least an hour, we're very busy", to which I replied, "that's fine". It gave me plenty of time to call up to my friend Andrew to borrow King of the Hill Seasons 4 & 5, to which his only request in return was to borrow my copy of Animal Farm by George Orwell. My pizza eventually arrived at 8.49pm. I noticed that, as well as my pizza, there was a metallic foil box in the order as well. I was intrigued. The guy looked rattled.

"I'm so sorry about the delay sir."
"No worries", says I, "How much was that again?"
"For you sir, free. Sorry again about the delay!"

I was thinking, "Awesome, I just saved myself €13!".

The complementary metallic box contained Ed's new "Garlic Knots", just in case you were wondering...

If you enjoy reading my blog, please check out my friend Jason's blog at www.JasonParmele.com.

----------------
Now playing: The Satin Peaches - Well Well Well Well
via FoxyTunes

The Mid-Term Break

Ah man, I love the lyrics in this song:

"Unintelligence negates picturesque,
Objectivity earns you points with me,
Interactivity beats pornography."

I'm not going to bother going to school tomorrow (or today, technically). I also didn't go to Agricultural Science or After-School Study today, but that's just ignorance on my part!

It's only at times like these that I realize how much I love Mozilla Firefox, and why I insist on using it to this day. Let's face it, the future of the internet is in homemade Apps, as Apple proved with the iPod touch and iPhone, sigh... The ability to control my music, my bookmarks, my RSS feeds and my Twitter [TheCosmicFrog] within a UI that doesn't look like it came from Minority Report (Windows Internet Explorer), that isn't begging to be licked like a candy cane (Opera), isn't colored with suicide-inducing gray (Apple Safari) and doesn't feel like it's going to stab you in the face when you least expect it (Google Chrome).
Firefox 3 is by far the most solid feeling of all the browsers I've ever used, and I've used Firefox since the dawn of time (c. 2005). The extensions available are just insane; who cares why I need the weather reported in my web browser?

I said it today, and I'll say it again, only this time via the medium of the internet(s). Smokers make great companions. Ever have a conversation with a smoker, or a group of smoking buddies? I promise it'll be the best conversation you've ever had. Smokers are also very educated. For instance, did you know that Lambert and Butler cigarettes have 0.5mg of nicotine per measure, while Benson and Hedges have 0.9mg? That's almost twice the addiction!

Here's a random musing: They make sugar-free candy, diet soda, and decaffeinated coffee, but do they make nicotine-free cigarettes?

One of the poems on for the Irish exam in the Leaving Cert. is just hilarious. It's called "Bímse Buan ar Buairt Gach Ló". Basic description: There once was a Catholic Scottish prince, and so by the process of association, the Irish assumed he was Gaelic and started crying when he eventually ran away from the English.
We've learned a lot from the English down the years. For example, Easter Rising, 1916, we found out the hard way that the English had tanks...

I've started reading again. I'm progressing my way through 'Tis by Frank McCourt, the follow up to Angela's Ashes. It's significantly less damp than its predecessor, being based in New York City rather than Limerick, where the satanic River Shannon brought the Consumption (inbred name for Tuberculosis) to all the young boys who disgraced themselves... highly recommended.

I have a new favorite song. Hoppípolla by Sigur Rós. The song means absolutely nothing, however, unless you watch the video.

Quantum of Solace is out next weekend, so I'll be going to see that with my brother, along with the new Star Trek film, whenever the hell that decides to show itself...

My friend Paul is down in Galway tomorrow from his upper-echelon desk job in Dublin. Paul is a Warhammer: Age of Reckoning GM, working for GOA Ireland, so send all your problems his way. That means tomorrow's game plan is sorted.

While you're here, please take a look at my good friend Holly's website, www.WinnersUseDrugs.com, a totally unique, objective view of celebrity culture. Be sure to subscribe to her blog if you enjoy reading it!

I think I can actually feel my left eye deteriorating...

----------------
Now playing: Make Model - The Was
via FoxyTunes

Stink Bombs...

...should be banned. What the hell? Where do these trends come from? I can throw stink bombs but I can't wear a baseball cap anymore?

GMIT sucks. No one seemed to care about any of the students there. Almost as if they knew that they would be filled up for next year with over-spill from NUIG, but whatever, it is a matter of complete indifference to me, Madge. Steve stole an Aer Lingus Airbus A330-300 Safety Information Card for me, so he's officially on my Xmas Card List!

Today was, in many respects, a waste. Rory and I left GMIT after being in there for a mere hour. We stopped in Eddie Rocket's in Wellpark. I got the hamburger and fries. Rory was attacked by a bottle of ketchup. Rory went back to school to get his gym clothes.

Ever been in school when you're not supposed to? It feels weird, an almost pride-inducing respect... it's disgusting really.

We cycled back to my house, where I showed him how to fly an Airbus A320. Dialog below:

Me: "Now remember Rory, stay slightly below the Glide Slope."
Rory: "Okay."
Me: "Stay a little more below. You're above it now."
Rory: "Okay."
Me: "Down, down!!"
Airbus: "...40, 30, 20, RETARD, RETARD!"

Rory lands the plane two-thirds of the way down the runway

Me: "REVERSE!!!"

----------------
Now playing: Box Car Racer - All Systems Go
via FoxyTunes

Off to College Tomorrow...

At the start of this year, I made myself a personal promise that I wouldn't receive detention this year. Instead, today I received detention from a teacher, for doing my homework, but on the wrong type of page (the stupid bitch). [/frustration]

I totally love leg weights. Could somebody tell me the name of that hamstring curl machine in The Bish's gym? I gotta get me one of those for Xmas.

I created my first ever sexist joke this morning, during Biology. I'm not saying I'm proud of myself, but hell, stereotypes are there to be embraced with open arms *swigs whiskey from hip flask, smokes pipe*:

Teacher: "...and that's what Parkinson's Disease is, lads."
Me: "Is that what women drivers have?"

Kevin Con: *laughs hysterically*

It's been a slow week so far, even it's only been two days. The funniest thing that happened was one of the teachers trying to wrestle an Ethernet cable into the phone-jack on his computer, before eventually giving up. I'm not sure whether or not he ever found it!

I love bisectuals; this week is being bisected by the GMIT Open Day tomorrow, where I'm sure I'll walk around with the same confused, blank stare, pondering over the best way to earn (steal?) €95,000 to pay for for Pilot training.

Click on the link to the right to donate ---> POOR PILOT PHUND

----------------
Now playing: Weezer - We Are All On Drugs
via FoxyTunes