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

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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:

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---> Insert Guesses Here <---

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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.

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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?!?


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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!

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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:

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---> INSERT JUDGE HERE <---

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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!


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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


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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.

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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...

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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!!!"

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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

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

Tomato Soup?!

Stupid McCambridges. They know I hate tomato soup. Well, probably anyway, I have been going there for a week after all...

The usual Monday madness at The Bish; double-Biology in the morning, followed closely by religion, or perhaps I should say "Mr. Currie's lame attempts to impress us with photographs of ancient Rome". Religious Fail.

Why don't I hate Irish anymore? I never thought I had it in me. Perhaps we should be paying that Irish tutor dude more money. French really sucks the monkey these days. I used to be good at French (Hons.B in Junior Cert.), now I have little-to-none passion towards it. I'm contemplating Ordinary-Level. Mathematics, how I'm forced to dislike you. I can't complain though, I'm not bad at differentiation.

English, now there's an awesome subject, added to by an inspiring, actually-gives-a-damn teacher. If it wasn't for my liking for English, I wouldn't have had the patience to write a blog.

The day was bisected by forty minutes spent in the Weights Room in school. There's something about listening to "Story of My Life" and bench-pressing that makes me feel good.

Bananas rule. [/blog]

Bowling for Pizza

*I meant to write this last night, but instead I'm writing it this morning, which I'm kind of glad about (see below)*

Woo, yesterday was fun!

I woke up late and, until 3pm, I feared the worst. Usually if I don't do anything until that time on a Saturday I don't end up doing anything at all. I ended up going into the city with a few friends and didn't doing anything remarkable. The most productive thing that happened was me printing out my entire 'feelThere/Wilco Airbus Series Vol. 1 Pilot's Manual' *deep breath* and sorting it into a giant 100-page folder. €7.50 in 'squareyes', thanks Jason!

At 7.30pm, my family and I went out to a really great restaurant here in Galway, "The Front Door", where I got the most awesome pizza ever; pepperoni, spicy chicken, jalapenos and chilis. They call it the 'Diavola'. I call it the 'fireball'!

So one pizza, a portion of french fries and a few gallons of water later, my friends and I (minus one *sad face*) went bowling at "City Limits CityBowl", 6 miles out of the city (hence the name), but totally worth it. They actually bother to grease the balls and lanes, unlike "The Planet", where the pins are attached to strings and one eye must be focused on your wallet at all times!

Final result:
1st - James
2nd - Eoghan
3rd - Andrew
4th - Aaron (Me)

I guttered four shots in a row, it's to be expected. But then I drank a red BPM and got my game back, scoring not two, not three, but one strike. Go me!

And finally, this morning, I received a mannerly letter from PayPal Corporation, informing me that they were refunding me my stolen transaction fees. Go PayPal!

Can This Day Just End Now?

So today has gone from bad to frustrating to horrible to retarded.

'Bad' is having to wake up early and go straight to French class, where I have (mostly) no clue what's happening, and anything I do understand probably isn't that important anyway; similaire à la plupart des jours?

'Frustrating' is having Paypal steal from me three times in the space of two minutes where the problem was beyond my control.

'Horrible' is "requesting" my temporary password off of 3V three times and receiving no answer well over four hours later (and counting).

'Retarded' is me being in a bad mood on a day that, by all rights, should be the happiest day of anyone's life, Friday.

Bring on the weekend, I usually "je m'amuse bien" quite easily on Saturdays ;)

Step 1: Create Blog; Step 2: ...; Step 3: Profit!

So, I've been meaning to write one of these for a long time.

Why have I waited this long then? Let's analyze the reasons:

1. I'm not a very important guy. Sure, I have many different views to other "plebs", but I haven't really done anything remarkable, so to speak of. People who deserve their own blog ahead of me are people such as, Neil Armstrong, Nelson Mandela, Bob Geldof and, to a lesser extent, Sarah Palin. The important people; the people who want change for the sake of change (except the latter, perhaps).

2. Whenever I push myself, I get tired. On the flipside of that coin, whenever I don't push myself, I get lazy, resulting in me becoming even more tired.

3. I (Public Aaron) have been arguing with Private Aaron for a long time on whether to choose Blogger or WordPress for my potential Blogging space. Since WordPress seems about as fun as the Eucharistic Adoration, I decided to go with old Blogger.

4. I can usually think of something more fun to do with my computing time. However, Windows Live Messenger has failed to sign me in (again), so this should suffice, for the timebeing.

5. I'm in Leaving Certificate year now, so the chances of me coming here and ranting about how useless and uninspiring my many teachers are is higher than usual. Might make for some interesting writing...

6. Only a few minutes ago did I realize that putting the words "The", "Cosmic" and "Blog" together could sound so cool.

7. I'm reaching a point in my life that will only reoccur when I'm in my graying years. That where I start to notice all the little things that annoy me about the world, such as, how nobody has a designed a better system for keeping the fizz in a bottle of soda, after its opened.

...yeah, I deserve a Blog.