Elections and Choices

Seems our Canadian friends are having themselves an election and there was a recent comedy ad which I personally found rather good!

We might be having one here in Ireland to. We definitely have to have by one June 2007, though I'm of the belief that the government might jump to catch people on the hop. My pick is for June this year for reason I might go into later. I passed on my reasoning to someone who might be considered to have expert knowledge and his response that there was more than 1/3 chance suprised me. I'd have gone for more like a 15% chance. So, you heard it here first.

Where you from then? A question one is often asked, and given my mobility down the years a somewhat longwinded answer is the only true reply. I do count myself as a Kerryman first and foremost though.

The site above was featured on channel 4 News this week and since then appears to have been getting loads more traffic than they expected.

New year's nonsense.

Quite funny review of the year

I want one!

Actually, I want all of these!

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to one and All

I'll still be around myself for a while more, but thought I'd send out my season's good vibes before everyone leaves the net.

I wonder if this classic will get an airing over the holidays?

Have you heard the one about...

All humour seems to be potentially dividable into homour not necessarily jokes about how some group are different so let's laugh at what makes them different, or how we're all the same because we all do this particular thing so let's laugh at that thing we all do. Laughing at others or ourselves in way.

The coming of the Green Man

Changing skin colour may be as easy as fish

And look, there goes that surrealist changing a light bulb joke again.

As for my take on this, I've had this one floating around my pile of future societal changes for a while. Essentially, that the current interest and promenience of tattoos combined with the growth of an affluent group of people who through a use of tanning products and makeup are actually bright Orange.

This would all reach a logical conclusion when people could change their entire skin change to something like green or blue. Or mixtures, like some of the cheap alien makeup in Star Trek:TOS.

Portents of doom.

There are times as teenager you get feelings that horrible things at waiting just out of sight. And that terrible events will occur just as you are about to do something personally momentous. Just to steal your thunder, or spite you. Like you get a good mark in a test, and come home all a glow and find out the cat had kittens.

And somethings you feel that personal events like your birthday are great portents of doom. And here is what nearly happened on one of mine!

That would have made the cake something of a disappointment.

The weekend awaits.

I've finally got the numbers into my phone using the old method of entering them by hand. OK, I entered them by hand into the PC and then synched the PC with the phone, which was marginally faster. I have 163 contacts which I think is kind of a lot.

Another one of those oh-so interesting who are you thingies.

You Are a New School Democrat

You like partying and politics - and are likely to be young and affluent. You're less religious, traditional, and uptight than most Democrats. Smoking pot, homosexuality, and gambling are all okay in your book. You prefer that the government help people take care of themselves.

What political persuasion are you?

Your Hidden Talent

Your natural talent is interpersonal relations and dealing with people. You communicate well and are able to bring disparate groups together. Your calming presence helps everything go more smoothly. People crave your praise and complements.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

And one more

You Are a Henna Gaijin!

You're not Japanese, but you wish you were! You can use chopsticks with your eyes closed, and you've memorized hundreds of Kanji. You even answer your phone "moshi moshi." While the number of anime videos you've seen is way higher than the number of dates you've been on, there's hope. Play the sexy, mysterous gaijin, and you'll have plenty of Japanese meat.

What's Your Japanese Subculture?

InfraRed Tooth

I got a new phone!

I had to change my service provider, cos vodafone was just too damn expensive and K.Now couldn't afford it anymore. So, with €25 for 200 minutes, anytime, any network from 3, I reckoned I'd give that a go. The phone was €29. See my new phone here, and my old phone here. I also got a 256M mp3 player free! So, it seems like a bargain.

As the sim cards differ between the 3G phone and the old one, the shop can't do a transfer.

Another problem is that the new one doesn't have blue tooth, and I can't get infra red to work on the old one or on my latop. So, it appears that I can't move numbers from the old one to the new one! I will just have to type them all in again! AaaaaaaHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Autobus

It seems Bus Eireann are changing the bus service in and out of UL. I found this out by being given a timetable on the bus last night. It is unclear whether this new timetable is kicking in today Dec 1st or Sunday Dec 4th as there are conflicting messages in the etha.

The timetable itself is a design mess: at the top they refer to the 308 as going long Childers road, and the 308A as going via St. John's, yet the timetable itself is populated by M's and P's. The M's indicate the bus goes via Childers road and the P's indicate that the bus goes via St John's.
So the M is the 308 and the P is the 308A.

And just for more clarity, all the buses (98% of them) that go through the city centre are marked with an X. The ones that don't are not marked.

I'm inclined to believe that if I hold the timetable at a specific angle to the noonday sun on a particular date, it will point in the direction of a crock of gold but I could be on to a loser with that one.

My bad start to the week

First off, my curiousity has gotten the better of me, does Leaseplan Corporation N.v mean anything to anyone reading this? Mail me at the address on the left. I'm dead curious.

I tried to give blood yesterday, but the doc messed up the final part of sticking me with the needle bit and couldn't go in again. So that was a waste of time. The house you will have read about prior to this. My PC power supply blew yesterday, so I was without my machine until lunch time today, the 'man' came from Dell and replaced it and the motherboard today.

Played for a fool

I was out Sunday afternoon on my bike, and passed the house I had thought I had bought and it still has a sign outside it, but now the sign says SOLD. So, I seem to have been royally screwed.

I mailed the auctioneer and indicated that I'm perplexed, can't imagine I'll get much response.

Georgie Best, Superstar...

walks like a woman and he wears a bra.

Well, that is how the lyrics went when I was a lad. Could have been a London thing.

I have mixed feelings about his death. It is always sad when someone passes, but perhaps he is safe from whatever demons plagued him.

I never saw him play in person. Yet, his raffish image, tendency for long hair and love of the ladies must have had some impact on this particular youth.

Happy Thanksgiving to all concerned

Just a quick message to say Happy Thankgiving to all who observe the day.

I've had 2 Thanksgivings and I have to say it's a holiday I rather enjoy.

Trip tales Part 5: I've got to get back to Bahrain tonight

In my usual arse backward manner, I'm starting my posting about the weekend trip with the return journey, go figure that for narrative structure.

I was waiting in line for check-in and what did I see only a poster with my name of it on the baggage cart in front of me. Seriously! It's not everyday that happens, and especially not when you are holding a piece of id that mentions your name. I was half thinking/hoping that I might be mistaken for this Daniel Sullivan and feted with great applause. Sadly, it was not to be.

Getting back from Mainz turned into more of an ordeal and gamble than expected. Ms. X, (who can't be named for legal or taxation reasons or some such, I'm never quite sure if she is on the run from the law, the taxman or if perhaps she is the law and the taxman) txted me via someone else's phone from the uni on monday evening about 6pm as I was packing to tell me that no flights had left Frankfurt-Hahn all day or for most of the previous day due to fog. I was suprised and left a little undecided as to what to do, see tedious details here

- the flight was at 10.55pm, the last bus from Mainz was 7.50pm arriving at 9pm, and the last bus back to Mainz was/is at 12.30am, which meant that should the flight be delayed past then and then cancelled I couldn't make it back to Mainz. Also, if I took the 12.30 I wouldn't get back until nearly 2am and would be waking her up.

So my choice was, should I go to Hahn and see what the story was or give up on it and try and book another flight back on Tuesday /Wednesday, but they would be full of those people left over from from Sunday /Monday, or go to Hahn and risk it? I decided to risk it. Real risk taker, me! I bought return ticket for €15 instead of the oneway for €10.50 (you want tedious details, you can't handle the tedious details.)

The bus was almost empty. Which did not bode well.

As the bus got to Hahn and there were planes on the ground which had a just landed look about them (don't ask me to describe it, I suspect it's something in the way they lean, I know things about planes), I reckoned it was probably all systems go. I held off phoning until I was through the security but by then the phone had packed in and there were no pay phones on other side.

Upstairs, there was an erotic shop which was rather odd. The fact of the shop in such a small airport, not the shop itself. It's not like I went in and thought this is an odd shop, or that in I went in all.

On the other side of security, I fell into conversation this bloke who is playing with the Roncalli Circus which features the Kelly Family who are huge on the contintent, or so their site says. I remember Dave pointing out their house outside Cork. The guy had been in the airport since Sunday afternoon, he was playing some sort of mandolin instrument in the circus for the opening number which involved a Bolshoi trained ballerina and he carried the instrument about the whole time. He was quite annoyed with the whole situation. Can't blame him. All in all, I was dead lucky to have booked a flight on the Monday rather than the Sunday.

I was watching the time pass and as planes were taking off, late but still taking off I decided to stay on and give the bus back a miss. At that point I was committed to the return. However, I couldn't ring to confirm I wouldn't be coming back and I wasn't 100% sure what we'd agreed would be the assumption if I didn't ring. So, that was annoying as I didn't want her not sleeping in case I was going to ring.

Finally, the flight left about an hour late, but it was quick enough off the ground.

The plane landed in Shannon about 1am, and I was out of baggage collection by 1.25am. At that point there no buses, so I had to plump for a taxi. How can Shannon call itself an international aiport when there is no transport links from midnight until early morning? There was this yank who shared the cab to Bunratty. Bloody thing cost more than the flight. Was home in bed, (a cold bed) for about 2.30am.

The purpose of hips

A personal gripe of mine as an old geezer is the current popularity of low slung jeans. Or rather overly tight waisted pants that don't come up to the waist.

Now, I'm all in favour of bared female flesh provided the weather is appropriate. However, what I'm seeing around me is just plain silly. Hips have a purpose in emphasising the differences in shape between males and females and with the decline in distinguishing hair styles down through the years it was one of the few things that was a reliably indicator in a dark night spot.

The current insistence on material that is too tight and cuts into the area below the waist is doing nothing to assist in making the wearer look well or attractive. It produces an unpleasant looking fold of flesh which makes the person look overweight when clearly they are not. And don't get me started on the bum cleavage aspect.

These flares of the noughties will embarras those poor misfortunates for years to come.

Le comte is on record as saying that the whole thing is a jip to increase the profit margin for the rag trade. Shave 5% off the material cost and convince the purchasers that it's fashion while charging the same price and you've up a 5% gross increase in profit. The net figure would be even higher.

Sister-Sibling

I was home for 3 days last week for Kevin's funeral. He had a really good send off and I suspect would have quite enjoyed the few days. Kevin was my Godfather.

There were 6 children in the Foley's in all, Nellie, Mary, Joan(who I think may have been christened Hannah), Kevin, Bridie and Sheila(mom,who was christened Julia).

My dad's family also had 6, Dad is the eldest, and then Margeret, after that I'm actually a bit vague on the order of Christy, Paddy, Pauline, and Nancy. This is partially because both Paddy and Nancy died in the 1960s well quite young. Auntie Margeret who was my Godmother passed away, jeez, it must 2 1/2 years ago now.

This means that mom, aunties Joan and Bridie are the sole surviving Foleys. And mom and dad are the sole couple of the bunch. Mom is the youngest of the lot. There were twins that didn't make it to term, they were 2 months shy apparently. Perhaps today they would have made it, I'm not sure but they were both boys I think. My maternal grandmother was a Corkery, and we are also kind of related to Diggins, who I think my grandfather Paddy Foley's mother married after my greatgrandfather died shortly after my grandfather was born.

Those would have been quite small, or less than average family size for their time. I'm not sure I could manage 6, there again, my part were be the more straightforward so I guess it wouldn't be for me to say.

Kind of brings it home,

Families are strange organisations when it comes down to it. You can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family. And it seems to mark out the fact that blood is a thick, murky treacley substance, full of iron for strenght and family can be a lot like that too.

Love is a odd thing, there are all kinds. In particular I was put in mind of the love that siblings have for each other. You grow up together and probably there is a certain amount of looking out for one another. This can lead to all kinds of tensions as one sibling may feel that they know best as regards what another should do with their life and they will express their disappointment or displeasure at decisions the other sibling(s) make. This is even more problematic when it comes to giving advice or opinions involving the spouse or family of the one's siblings. Mother may be the one who knows best, but she will tend to display more tact or cop on than siblings will.

I've been kind of spared this as Biddy isn't likely to start giving me advice and then resenting me for not following it. It is something that people don't quite understand sometimes. I've never considered my sister as someone with a disability, first and foremost, she's my sister. She's been a pain, an annoyance, and she took my dessert sometimes too. And she never took her turn drying and washing the dishes. But all that was done in the manner of what any sister or sibling would do. And as a result I feel responsible for ensuring that she is ok. I suppose it never occurred to me as a reality that I might actually have to choose between doing that and other things in life. And it's not a choice you can really make. Essentially, the type of person you are makes the choice for you. And you can't realistically ask someone to take on that responsiblity with you, it just wouldn't be fair.

It occured to me recently (actually, I was walking along the Rhine) that God made man in his image, when we come to make something in ours, what will it look like?

Made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Missed a call from Mom this afternoon, only got around to listening to it about 4pm. Turns out my Uncle Kevin, Godfather and the man from whom the K. in Daniel K. comes from passed away at 12.10am this morning or last night depending on how you look at it. Mom said in her message that she was going to bed as she was up most of the night with the rest of the family. So, I'm no 100% clear on the details. Need to ring later this evening to get those.

I was home last weekend and popped in for a visit which I'm really glad now I had. He was in good spirits and seemed very much aware that things weren't looking good for him. Plenty of talk about having had a long life, and how we're getting old. Course, mom corrected him telling him they were old not, getting old. And there was some general chat about the then upcoming match, Laune Rangers against Dr. Crokes. I did think he might make Christmas but I'm not much of a judge it appears. I'm not sure exactly what it was though I have some suspicions and while this isn't necessarily somewhere to idly speculate, I'm inclined to point the finger at the ciggies. I think he was 84 or 85.

Strangely, my Godmother passed away about 18 months ago.

Anyway, as a result I'm going to be off-line for a few days, removal is tomorrow and the funeral Tuesday.

A farewell to all that

The last of these for a while.

You scored as Shepherd Derrial Book. The Preacher. Out here, folks need a minister, if only to remind them that God hasn't forgotten them. It isn't about making them worship, it is teaching them to do right by themselves and other people. Why is that so hard for some to understand? Shepherd Derrial Book 81% The Operative 75% Kaylee (Kaywinnet Lee) Frye 75% River Tam 75% Simon Tam 75% Zoe Alleyne Washburne 69% Capt. Mal Reynolds 63% Inara Serra 44% Hoban 'Wash' Washburne 44% Jayne Cobb 44% Which Serenity character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

This I didn't see coming

You scored as Angel. Angel is Buffy's vampire boyfriend. He used to be the infamous vampire, Angelous and was when he lost his soul. Before Darla turned him into a vampire, he was a worthless drunk. He murdered Jenny Calender. He was sent to Hell by Buffy. He moved to LA at the end of season three. Angel 70% Giles 65% Willow 60% Anya 60% Buffy 50% Faith 45% Oz 40% Cordelia 40% Xander 25% Which Buffy the Vampire Slayer Character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

And a bundle more while I'm at it.

Have to say I love the photo that goes with this!!! I so didn't have a hat like that.

You scored as Loner. Loner 81% Goth 63% Geek 63% Punk/Rebel 44% Drama nerd 44% Stoner 31% Ghetto gangsta 25% Prep/Jock/Cheerleader 19% What's Your High School Stereotype? created with QuizFarm.com

Geee who knew? I have to say that this one, while correct, in this case doesn't really seem all that reliable based on the questions asked.

You scored as Goth. Your A Goth! Goth 45% Rocker, Mosher 35% Prepy 20% Emo 20% Chav, Townie, Rude Boy, Ned, Kev 15% Trendy 10% Skater 0% What Group Are You? Chav, Rocker, Skater, Emo, Goth, Trendy, Prepy E.c.t created with QuizFarm.com

And no real surprise here either. Not sure is it is meant to be intentional or not.

You scored as Posion. Your death will be by poison, probably because you are a glutton and are around so many people that it would be easy to get away with it. Several important people in history share your fate. Posion 73% Bomb 67% Suicide 67% Natural Causes 67% Disappear 60% Gunshot 47% Disease 47% Eaten 40% Accident 33% Drowning 27% Cut Throat 27% Suffocated 20% Stabbed 20% How Will You Die?? created with QuizFarm.com

That piercing really brought this one together in the end I reckon.

You scored as Captain Jack Sparrow. Roguish,quick-witted, and incredibly lucky, Jack Sparrow is a pirate who sometimes ends up being a hero, against his better judgement. Captain Jack looks out for #1, but he can be counted on (usually) to do the right thing. He has an incredibly persuasive tongue, a mind that borders on genius or insanity, and an incredible talent for getting into trouble and getting out of it. Maybe its brains, maybe its genius, or maybe its just plain luck. Or maybe a mixture of all three. Captain Jack Sparrow 79% Neo, the "One" 75% Batman, the Dark Knight 75% The Terminator 75% Lara Croft 67% Indiana Jones 63% The Amazing Spider-Man 63% Maximus 63% William Wallace 58% El Zorro 54% James Bond, Agent 007 50% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

Hmmm.... I personally regard this as more aspirational than anything else. There again, a piece of cold metal can lead to all sorts of possibilities.

You scored as A Slave To BDSM. Admit it, you like being tied up and being told you've been very naughty. You like teasing your partner and making them squirm, and not letting them be able to do anything about it. Some people think what you do is sick and disgusting, but you know it's all in good fun. A Slave To BDSM 93% Sex God 65% A Romantic 55% Virgin 48% How are you in bed created with QuizFarm.com

This is probably to be filed under the heading of way too much information and it appears not to match the above...so I might have been lying at some point just to throw people off the scent.

You scored as Wet. You're wet 'n' wild, while that isn't always a good thing, we have to give you points for trying...right? Wet 63% Awkward 63% Violent 56% Soft 50% Sweet 50% Hot 50% Shy 44% Exciting 44% What is your sexual style? created with QuizFarm.com