TheCosmicBlog

Eating Cookies

2009-03-31T11:07:00.002+01:00

As I write, I'm sitting with Eoghan and Andrew and the rest of the history class in An Tobar Nua, eating cookies and drinking hot chocolate as treated to us by the delightful Christy Griffin. Eoghan says hi, Andrew gives me a look of disgust. Now I will most likely sleep soundly through English and French.

In other news, I had my Irish Oral Exam yesterday. Bhí sé ar fheabhas (it was great!)! As someone said, it was like talking to a brick wall...

Tim Coffen has Been Booted from the Server

2009-03-22T17:25:00.004Z

Yesterday (and most of this morning), we had Tim Coffen's going-away party. Tim has been an amazing friend to us in his time while working in squareyes and he's not someone we will forget too quickly. Tim is going back to Canada in a few days, so his remaining time in Ireland is precious to us. Tim, I hope you find your Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figurine, before it succumbs to the rural wasteland of Connemara.

Now, for the final time:

Tim Coffen has been removed from the server.

Game Over

Diet Drinks get too much bad rep

2009-03-17T18:12:00.003Z

What is it with diet drinks getting so much bad rep? Of course, they're usually sweetened with the potentially lethal, toxic substance known as Aspartame (to which we can thanks Donald Rumsfeld) but let's look at it from another point-of-view.

About four weeks ago, I decided to stop eating what I consider "junk food": fried food, candy, chocolate etc. This wasn't anything to do with "Lent", although it was most likely inspired by it. I just think that I don't need it. Not only is it bad for me, but it's also burning a hole in my pocket. At this stage, it has become a sort-of challenge, to "see how long I can go", without junk food, much like my good friend Jason (www.jasonparmele.com), who hasn't touched candy or chocolate for many, many years.

I have had one saving grace in this time though; diet drinks, more specifically Coca-Cola Zero and Rockstar Zero Sugar. I drink roughly seven bottles/cans of these drinks per week, which with all things considered, isn't very much at all. At 0.7kcals per bottle, me and Coke Zero get on great together.

Cheers.

My Life Minus Music

2009-03-13T22:39:00.004Z

A dark, lonely, desolate place, devoid of any color or emotive influence. Deep? That's music, baby.

For the second time since the beginning of melodic interference in my life, my iPod is broken. Music has become a major part of this life, such that I can confidently boast ownership of a "soundtrack to my life". The earlier days contain a lot of Green Day stuff, which eventually transitioned with a bang into my blink-182 days. Next came a surprisingly brief engorgement into Weezer. My current musical love affair is somewhat retro, but cool nonetheless: R.E.M.

Green Day was the beginning of music for me. I was about 12 years old and was relying solely on my brother for Green Day albums. I only really 'got into them' when I heard the song "Wake Me Up When September Ends". That one struck a nerve; I never found out why. That whole American Idiot album was one that played to most of my (undeveloped?) emotions at the time. I fell head-over-heels in love with anything that took my fancy at the time, something which I think most people get at that age. Make up your own minds...

blink-182: Mark, Tom and Travis who briefly turned me into a wannabe punk - something which I'll never be ashamed of! It was strange that I only ever started listening to blink after they broke up [c.2005]. I relied on old footage from concerts when they weren't much older than I am now to assure me that 'things do get better'. Their songs were, and still are, absolute gold. They appeal to their target audience, which is the most important thing. Sure, blink were never known for their instrumental complexity (bar Travis Barker's drumming), but frontmen Mark and Tom knew how to write a song aimed at a single mass of people. I'm happy that blink-182 are back together. I look forward to seeing what they can do.

Weezer was that point I reached where I didn't "give a crap anymore". As a result, I never got very emotionally attached to Weezer or any of their music. Most of their stuff is fairly straightforward anyway. The only complex piece of music written by frontman Rivers Cuomo is the now infamous, "My Name is Jonas", written about his handicapped brother. Lyrically, it's remarkably powerful. Here are some of my favorite lines:

"My name is Jonas, I'm carrying the wheel."

"My name is Weepeel, I've got a box full of your toys. They're fresh out of batteries, but they're still making noise!"

"Building's not going as he planned. The foreman has injured his hand. The dozer will not clear a path. The driver swears he learned his math. The workers are going home..."

I first heard an R.E.M. song when I showed somebody another favorite song of mine, "When Your Heart Stops Beating" by (the now defunct) +44. He described it as 'sounding like "Orange Crush" by R.E.M.'. I liked it enough to download it from iTunes. One day I was in HMV and saw In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 being sold for €9. On the recommendation of my friend Eoghan, I bought it. I haven't looked back since. It's hard to find much to dislike about R.E.M. Not only are they excellent instrumental musicians, but Michael Stipe's ambiguous lyrics pack a punch. My favorite song for the past while now has been "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?". Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtxz4yV_-3g

The following songs are the songs which I played during the writing of this entry:

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

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Now playing: blink-182 - Every Time I Look For You
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies
via FoxyTunes "

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Now playing: Rod Stewart - Young Turks
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Motion City Soundtrack - Everything Is Alright
via FoxyTunes )

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Now playing: The Who - The Seeker
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: R.E.M. - Orange Crush
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Ash - Girl From Mars
via FoxyTunes

Mock Update - Tuesday

2009-02-24T22:47:00.004Z

English Paper II

Oh gawd no... the dreaded "Papier Deux". I think I can safely say "ohnoes" to my results for this one. I spent 2.5 hours writing three paragraphs on a Macbeth question (recommended is seven) and didn't even attempt the poetry.

Geography

I failed miserably. I didn't attempt anything but the Section One and Question 1 on Section Two. I don't mind though, because I'm switching my Option to Geoecology. My heart just isn't in Culture and Identity. The highlight of that exam was when Mr. ************ showed up ten minutes late looking hungover and as if he was hit by a few buses on the way in. He must be sick... or just hungover and got hit by a few buses?

Mock Update - Monday

2009-02-23T22:20:00.005Z

The first day of Leaving Cert. Mock Exams has gone and passed.

Maths Paper II

As I just described to a friend of mine on MSN, I spent a significant amount of this exam flicking through the pages mentally ticking off all of the things I had neglected in my study. I was fairly confident with things like "Simpson's Rule" and "Geometry - The Line", dominating the former question, but drowning in the latter. Why do those asses always phrase the question differently? Fuck you anyway trigonometry, you slippery bastard, you've got me once more.

English Paper I

Oh come on, this paper was never really a daunting prospect. Just a lot of bullshitting about your understanding of a piece. This year's mock was based around the general theme of "childhood", which bollocked a fair few people, from what I understand. My proudest achievement was writing that essay about the Guatemalan circus boy smuggling himself into Mexico. I thought it was written well, albeit a little short (1 1/2 pages).

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Now playing: Coldplay - Life In Technicolor II
via FoxyTunes

I'm Happy!

2009-02-15T18:53:00.002Z

Without dwelling on it too much, I'll just begin this entry by stating that I'm not longer at the cliff-edge of depression.

The world seems to have a silver lining now and my future seems like a happy, bright, sunny place. Okay fine, scrap that last superlative, Galway weather is "shoyte", as Paul might say. As a complete coincidence, my cloudy thoughts were cured for good as soon as I started studying. For the first time in 19 months, I feel like I can actually achieve a decent Leaving Cert, albeit a year-and-a-bit late...

Can I Has Lock Back?

2009-02-02T18:52:00.003Z

This one goes out to the complete bastard who stole the padlock to my school locker. What the hell dude? I mean, I know I bought it in €uro 2, but still, get some manners.

I've been out sick for a week now and I have to come back to this bullshit...

Thanks to Rory for the heads up!

<3

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Now playing: The Killers - All These Things That I've Done
via FoxyTunes

Microsoft Flight Simulator is No More

2009-01-26T22:49:00.004Z

Something which has become an intricate part of my life over the past eighteen months, died yesterday.

With the announcement of the closing of Microsoft's ACES studio, the Microsoft Flight Simulator series, established in 1982, was finally laid to rest. In a statement from the company, Microsoft explained that they are "still committed to the Flight Simulator franchise" and expect to release more updates for it. However, with no further comments from the horse's mouth, all does not look good.

Days before this, websites around the internet were rampant with the rumors that Microsoft Flight Simulator 11 would be completely rebuilt from the ground up, comprising of a brand new engine to make better use of newer Graphics Processing Units and chipsets, some even going as far as claiming Microsoft would develop their own Blade Element Flight Dynamics, as in rival sim X-Plane.

Goodbye Microsoft Flight Simulator. May you be reborn again someday soon.

Trying to Sort Out a Lot of Things

2009-01-22T19:47:00.002Z

Hi guys, girls, friends, readers, StumbleUpon'ers.

I haven't been in a good frame of mind recently, what with looming exams, trying to gather the mentality to study and a whole host of other crap filling up the pink, globular goo in my skull.

I hope you'll be patient and allow me some time to think things over.

Thanks,
Aaron.

Happy New Year 2009!

2009-01-01T02:18:00.001Z

Happy New Year folks!

2008-12-26T00:42:00.004Z

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

2008-12-21T21:15:00.002Z

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

2008-12-13T04:53:00.003Z

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

2008-12-09T20:48:00.006Z

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.

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

The Right-Hand Blog

2008-12-08T22:59:00.003Z

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

2008-12-06T21:33:00.003Z

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!

2008-12-04T22:23:00.005Z

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

2008-12-01T23:32:00.005Z

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!
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Now playing: R.E.M. - Orange Crush
via FoxyTunes

Finished My Exams, Birthday Tomorrow

2008-11-28T23:54:00.004Z

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 :)

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

Update to Talk About an Update

2008-11-27T18:43:00.002Z

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!

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Now playing: Sum 41 - Makes No Difference
via FoxyTunes

I'm Dying, Moe.

2008-11-23T22:06:00.001Z

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

2008-11-19T23:05:00.002Z

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

2008-11-16T14:09:00.002Z

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

2008-11-16T00:14:00.004Z

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:

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.
Place the crushed ice (two ice trays-worth seems good) into the pint glass.
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.
Pour the lemon/orange juice mixture over the crushed ice.
(Optional step) Add a shot-glass amount of vodka/fruit schnapps to the juice.
Fill to the top with ice-water.
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!

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