Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in The Grumpy Muppet's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, June 26th, 2008
2:12 pm	Baby is here, So at about 06:30 on Saturday Morning, Lisa went into labour, at 12:00, we headed to the hospital, only to be sent home to wait for a while. At 19:00, back to the hospital, things were moving along, but quite slowly, nothing to worry about, just needed to wait and see. By 21:00, I was sent home, while she was kept on a ward to await developments, (a policy that impressed neither of us, leaving a woman in labour with her first child alone and without the support of a familiar face seemed horribly cruel). At 03:55 on Sunday morning I was called back in, after a long day, with much heroics from Lisa (Epidural was only put in after 31 hours when it became clear that the baby's position was making delivery nigh-impossible, and an extra hormone would need to be given to her to increase the strength of contractions), at about 17:00 a doctor came in and stated that the baby had been in the canal too long and was becoming distressed, if he was not delivered within a few minutes, he would have to resort to using the suction pump to get him out. A final effort from Lisa delivered baby Tiernan Ciaran McCormack at 17:07 on Sunday June 22nd, without assistance from the suction gizmo. Baby weighed in at 7lb2. Delivery was a bit of a mess, epidural wore off in the last minutes, and a certain degree of cutting was required. Amazingly, Lisa was not howling in pain, choosing instead to hold the air in her lungs to help with the pushing. Unbelieveable, even the midwives were impressed, not only that she managed 31 hours without epidural (if baby had been correctly positioned he would have been born hours earlier), but also that after 35 hours she was very calm and focused on the task at hand. All home now, very tired but very happy. (some more photos on Flickr) (8 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Friday, June 20th, 2008
8:46 am	How many times do we have to say it, No means No. I've spent much of the last week thinking about the Lisbon treaty rejection, and the reaction to our rejection of it. When I cast my vote, a no, I expected the result to be a lot closer than it was, and it was a pleasant surprise to see how emphatic the response was. But with the referendum complete and the treaty defeated, it was clear that there are some pretty big issues. The newspapers and radio are making big out of the reaction in Europe, and the pressure that is being brought to bear on Irish politicians to call another referendum. The notion that the Irish electorate has been duped or misled by the no campaign, and that concerns raised were irrelevant to the treaty are nothing less than insulting. It was suggested by some in the No campaign that despite assurances that a yes vote would not be a step towards a common defence policy for Europe, that France was drafting a White Paper on Defence which would outline plans to at least move towards an integrated approach on Defence. It was also suggested that this "White Paper" was being held back until after the Irish Referendum, lest it sour the vote. Within a week, that same paper has been released, calling for massive restructuring and reinvestment of the French Defence Forces, which is not something I would be happy about, but ultimately that is a decision for the French Government. However, the second part, which President Sarkozy discussed in a speech to 3,000 French Officers, involves a France re-joining NATO and the closer co-operation of EU military commands. In his speech, Mr Sarkozy made it plain that France's return will take place only in parallel with progress on European defence—and that France will retain its independent nuclear force de frappe. One obstacle to more joint European defence—American objections to a potential rival to NATO—has been removed. Mr Sarkozy said this week that, despite the uncertainty after the Irish no to the Lisbon treaty, he wants to press ahead on defence during the six-month French presidency of the European Union, which starts on July 1st. from the economist Certainly not the European Army, or the return to national service that some in the No camp had predicted, but for my money, this step alone is reason enough to vote no. People may argue that this is a decision that could be taken with or without Lisbon, and that the military spending provisions proposed by Lisbon don't relate directly to Sarkozy's plans for France. However, I would put it to the yes camp, that any treaty that makes any military provision is bound to be compatible with the military objectives of those that drafted it, therefore the EU influence on military spending is a bureaucratic step that will facilitate the separate military planning structure that the French are looking for. Up to 60,000 troops may be put into operation for a year, not as a European Army, but as a "pooled resource", not a standing force, but a force to be assembled on an ad-hoc basis. No doubt this is intended as a counter terrorism measure to be sold to leaders of European States using "KFOR" rhetoric rather than "Coalition of the Willing" rhetoric. This of course could threaten the special relationship that exists between the US and the UK. Whether or not you choose to believe the rumours that Libertas was funded by the CIA, or other members of the US Intelligence community, it is a fact Washington was absolutely opposed to Lisbon for that reason. US intelligence and security officials have been able to circumvent EU institutions in many cases so far by relying extensively on formal and informal arrangements with the individual member governments. In addition, Washington has felt confident that its European allies would use their powers to veto unwelcome EU-wide proposals in areas related to security and defence. If adopted, the Lisbon treaty could threaten many of these arrangements. From Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor. Regardless, the idea that an EU force could be used to lend ligitimacy to the settling of French scores in Algeria, or to help the UK supress it's own Islamic demons is repugnant, particularly when you add the neo-colonialist stink that is rising from France's plans to gain a foothold in the middle east with a new Military base in Abu Dhabi and the retention of it's base in Djibouti. To say nothing of the influence of a certain large French company in a certain troubled nation in South East Asia. Beyond that, the notion that the treaty proposed a more "democratic" Europe, with a fairer deal for small nations, and that Ireland would hold a veto on issues of crucial import to the Irish people has been shattered. A clear majority of the Irish people have rejected this treaty, and yet, the leaders of the European Union still see fit to call for a second referendum, to ignore the clear will of one of its member states (and the only member state who has been given the opportunity to vote openly on the issue). The rest of Europe looks set to move forward with ratification and Brian Cowen has essentially been told that he has a year to get his house in order, that little or no concessions will be made and that re-negotiation of the treaty is not an option at the moment, either Ireland ratifies the treaty or it opts out of the EU. Clearly, this threatens to create a 2 tier Europe, with Ireland on Tier 2, an idea which flies in the face of existing EU treaties and seems like little more than a bullying tactic, the treaty of Lisbon cannot be passed without unanimity, and the Irish people have rejected it, so the treaty as it now stands cannot be ratified. Listening to the reaction, threats and heated exchanges from politicians at home and in Europe, it seems to me that Europe is not the fair and democratic place that was painted by the yes campaign, and the negative reaction and scaremongering that has gone on has only served to prove the No campaign right in many ways. Ultimately, time will tell, I don't think the government can expect to reverse this decision with another referendum, unless significant amendments can be made, and any suggestion to the contrary would be by definition undemocratic. Worrying, but not really surprising that there is such a gulf between people and their elected representatives, after all, how can a referendum, supported and endorsed by parties who between them gathered 81.7% of the popular vote at the last election (41.6% FF, 27.3% FG, 10.1% Lab, 2.7% PD) rte news carry just 46.6%. What now for Ireland and Europe? It's an interesting time ahead I think, the No vote drew in disparate elements from both left and right each with radically different agendas, appeasing both of them is going to be almost impossible, particularly with Europe's largely centrist agenda. To be honest I don't know what the next move is, but I do know that giving in to the scare tactics, and ratifying the treaty because everyone else is, and we might get left behind would demonstrate an ideological weakness, and such an about-turn would only show the more powerful nations of the EU that they can get what they want by leaning on the smaller members. No matter how you stack the numbers 26 out of 27 is never unanimous. One idea that I would sign up to, would be for future treaties to be ratified by EU wide referendum, I would happily amend our constitution to allow Ireland to sign any treaty which had the approval of a majority of the entire EU population, (on a straight yes / no count, none of your electoral college nonsense). On that basis and on that basis alone will I accept the argument that 862,415 people voting no should not make a decision for 495.5 million. Surely, if we want a populist and "democratic" EU as the yes vote claims this is a valid way to proceed? That way would lead to faster integration as Yes and No campaigns co-ordinate across the union, ideologically compatible groups across the union could establish links, giving greater strength to things like the trade union movement and pro-choice organizations. Of course the governments might not be so happy about a common-protest policy, or the idea that mis-treatment of say, nursing staff in one member state could spill over into another. There is also the point that groups I disagree with, like the Pro-Life brigade would also unite, but that's how democracy works, they get everyone who agrees with them on their side, we get everyone who agrees with us on our side and whoever has the most people wins, it is clear that these issues cross borders, so why not let the activism cross the borders too. Course, this is all just wild speculation. But it's a nice idea. (3 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
9:49 am	Oil Rant. Interesting, McCain is calling for a lifting on the US ban on offshore Oil drilling, seems to me that of all the ways of extracting oil, offshore is probably one of the best, in terms of overall environmental impact, seems that in the US Coastal states they are all afraid of oil spills and damage to the tourist industry. It is my opinion that oil dependency is a very bad thing, but it is also true that we are going to need as much of the stuff as we can get over the next few years while alternatives are worked out, Saudi Arabia's commitment to produce more has helped bring down the price of crude in the past couple of days, but that's just going to accelerate the depleting of the Arabian Oilfield, the US has reserves of about 20 billion barrels, which would supply the world for about 8 months at the current consumption rate, or at 2004 levels supply the US for about 2 years and 9 months. Clearly, further oil reserves are going to be needed, and I'd much rather it be oil from US coastal waters (which less face it will have less of a footprint than oil extracted from the middle east and shipped to the US), than oil extracted from war-torn Iraq or from the Alaskan Wilderness. Then of course there is the neo-colonial exploration going on in West Africa, from the likes of Irish Oil Exploration company Tullow Oil, who have been disposing of assets elsewhere to focus on a exploration in Ghana and Uganda, they also have fingers in pies in Gabon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Equatorial Guinea, Senegal, Congo, Tanzania, Madagascar, Namibia and Angola. There is a naïve part of me that thinks that discovery of massive oil reserves in Africa could be the salvation of that troubled continent, if they held the keys to untapped reserves that were for example similar in volume to what the Arabians had 100 years ago, the global economy could just shift in their favour overnight, massive amounts of money would flow into Africa, and massive amounts of influence would flow out. The problem of course is that from a socio-political point of view Africa is a complete mess, and the money and influence is likely to be captured by European and American corporations, with any benefits being swallowed up by corrupt governments. Also, Africa is not the same as the Middle East, whereas the middle east was largely desert with little or no population, (which means that places like Saudi Arabia and the UAE can afford to support their populations without needing to charge income tax) African populations are much larger, and I suspect, oil reserves much lower. It would take a huge surge in African Nationalism to make the most of their oil income (if indeed such income could be realised), and re-investment in social schemes (HIV projects, literacy programs, healthcare, education) and intense diplomatic efforts to resolve the tribal / national conflicts that still drag on 150 years after Europeans sat down to draw lines on a map. Man, imagine, "Fair Trade" oil. With oil being hauled out of the ground everywhere it can be found, I think I have to agree with McCain on this one, sure, oil exploration is a bad thing, but for the US to tear the world apart to drill for oil it is completely inequitable for them to sit on their own potential reserves without at least looking to see what is there. Agreeing with a Republican is not something I'm used to, but since Gov. Schwartzeneger is opposed to the idea, I think it balances out. Focus should be on new sources of energy, but if oil reserves can be stretched to give us an extra 10 - 20 years to develop those new energy sources, then clearly that's a perfectly defensible action, after all, when oil shortages start to hit the worlds food supplies, it's not people in the US and Europe who will be the first to starve. (6 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
2:56 pm	Couldn't agree more Couldn't care less. (4 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Friday, May 9th, 2008
4:07 pm	For those of you in the correct part of the city, Myself and the rest of the Dancing Frankensteins will be on Near FM next Thursday evening (May 15th) from about 7:00pm, we've been asked to come into the studio for a chat and to play a couple of songs. I suspect there will be about a half dozen people tuned in, but it's still pretty cool. If you've nothing better to do, pick up the live stream here. Dermot is currently spending his weekends in studio finishing off the album, (which was recorded ages ago with another band, but has been in production hell ever since) furthermore, we will be playing in the Lord Mayor's pub in Swords on Friday 30th of May before taking a baby related hiatus. Otherwise things are moving along quite nicely, now into what the hospital predicts to be the last 5 weeks before parenthood, and have begun to share the house with an increasingly large pile of assorted infant accoutrements and other tiny person paraphenalia. Generally very excited about the whole thing and looking forward to meeting the baby, who so far has only been able to communicate with the outside world by means of the occasional kick or outward push. The next few weeks will be taken up with the final decoration of the baby's room, and buying a pram and car seat thing. Baby wardrobe from Ikea in Belfast is sitting in the room waiting to be assembled and a crib for it to sleep in is similarly flat packed and waiting in my parents place. Apart from the incredible amounts of hard work and sleepless nights that lie ahead, I am looking forward to being able to re-visit all of the child-centric places I was brought to as a nipper, the zoo for example, also thinking about family holidays, will be unlikely to be doing anything this year with a newborn, but there's plenty of places you can take a one year old, plans are afoot to drive to the Cambridge Folk Festival next summer and potential trips to varied parts of rural Ireland over the following years mean that a bigger car is something I am thinking a lot about. I hope to be able to run the Fiesta for another 10 or 11 months at least, despite it's size it should be suitable for our day to day purposes, and switch it for a family sized model before summer 2009 arrives, I've been looking at estate cars on the roads quite a bit, the quintessential family car if you ask me, perfect for camping trips and long journeys. I have spent the last 2 weeks covering for one of the other team leaders in the fancy HP Technology Campus in Leixlip, where my job will be based from August onwards, it's an enormous place, from the front reception to my desk is a half kilometre walk down a corridor, followed by a couple of hundred meters across the production floor where various inkjet bits are made. Luckily, I can drive around to a nearby carpark and avoid the trek. The campus links directly with the M4, which runs into the N4, which is about 90 seconds drive from my house, in the worst traffic, with one lane closed for roadworks, getting to and from work has taken between 15 and 25 minutes from my front door to my desk. Next week I will be back working in Belfield, which is 45 minutes to an hour's drive each way, every day of the week. Roll on August. (2 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Friday, April 11th, 2008
5:04 pm	April 19th, Radio City Store Street. Should be a good night, you should all like, go n' stuff. (2 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
3:42 pm	Subsistance Farming Subsistance Farming Originally uploaded by Grumpy Muppet. This is my kitchen window ledge, the chili plant flowered twice last year, and produced a decent jar of dried chilies. There are plenty of buds and some early flowers have started to develop into fruit already this year, I've also tried to germinate some seeds from last years crop, hopefully will have 2 or 3 more plants before too long. Also growing in the same pot is a garlic plant, which began life as a clove which sprouted in the bottom of the vegetable drawer in the fridge. In the past couple of weeks the Garlic has grown exponentially and now needs to be moved to a new pot of it's own. We usually have a few herbs growing in pots outside, which tend to die over the winter, and the next plan is to grow some carrots and potatoes in the garden. Somewhere down the line I'd like to try growing tomatoes too, but that would require some sort of greenhouse methink. (4 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Monday, April 7th, 2008
8:22 am	Charlton Heston Dead at 84 Charlton Heston Dead at 84 S'cuse me, I have to go pry a rifle out of his Cold Dead Hands". (Shout your own slogan)
Friday, April 4th, 2008
10:27 am	So, May the 6th will be the end of the Bertie Era of Irish Politics. I think anyone reading this is likely to know what my opinion of Mr Ahern is, I'll give you a hint, it hasn't changed since the time in Trinity when I not only refused to shake his hand but waved a middle finger at him instead. I happened to have a half day from work on Wednesday and was in the car driving across the city listening to newstalk (my current radio station of choice), I tuned in and caught the tail end of a sentence about dramatic news, from the commentary it was clear that someone had stepped down. At first I thought, Mugabe must have stepped down and it's a slow news day so they're making a fuss, about 2 seconds later it was apparent that it was Bertie who had resigned, perhaps the pressure of lying to the Media, the Dail and the Mahon Tribunal had got too much, so the Taoiseach was stepping down to reduce the amount of lies he needed to tell by 33%, or perhaps this man verging on his sixties has just grown tired of trying to explain some innocent transactions made more than a decade ago, and had shuffled out of the limelight with dignity, as he had planned to do all along, I'll leave it to you to decide. For me, the credibility of a man who held the office of Minister for Finance without ever having a bank account, who had unquestionably and at his own admission received money from business men, which was put to "personal use" (money received as "a political donation for personal use", is to my mind is at best a donation made to a present to a politician to defray non-political expenses, or at worst a euphemism for a bribe), and who straight up lied about sterling payments made to a bank account has long been in question. I was pretty surprised to be honest at the vitriol of the comments from listeners that were read out on the radio, a common theme was anger at the "Media" for "hounding the best leader we've ever had" out of of office. these sorts of messages outnumbered the "I'm glad he's gone, he was a corrupt liar" sorts of messages by 2 or 3 to 1. There is certainly no denying that for all his fumbles with the English language and for all the suspicion and allegation of shady backhanders, Bertie remains a charismatic and talented politician, as you would expect from a man schooled at the feet of Mr Charles J. Haughey who recognized him as the most devious member of his cabinet (a trait much respected by Haughey). His smiley, man-of-the-people facade and his dismissal as "nonsense" any accusation of wrongdoing won over many people, and his personality certainly carried a crucial few percent of the vote at the last election. But surely even the most ardent FF supporter must have felt some disquiet as day-by-day revelations at the Mahon Tribunal exposed more and more half-truths and as more and more unlikely explanations were offered for ever more deposits and donations of money from various sources and for various amounts. So Bertie will go and accordingly tribute for his work on the economy and for the Northern Ireland peace process, have been pouring in, of course great things have been accomplished over the course of the past 11 years in both these areas, but Bertie inherited the peace process from John Bruton, who in turn inherited it from Albert Reynolds, besides which the real credit for the peace process lies with the politicians in Northern Ireland, who took real political and personal risk in their communities to cross the divide. Politicians in Dublin, London and Washington, while crucial to the process were at best supporting players. As for the economy, for my money, consecutive governments have mismanaged an economy that has seen massive growth on the strength of a global boom. The huge revenues generated by the boom years has not been well spent, from the voting machines, to the health service, to basic infrastructure for broadband communications and the road network good money has been thrown after bad. As Bertie, the expert metaphor mixologist might say, throwing red herrings at white elephants. Crediting Bertie with the economic boom is like crediting a man on a runaway train with breaking the world land-speed record. I am glad that Bertie is stepping down, but I don't expect change, Brian Cowen looks likely to succeed as the next head honcho in Fianna Fail and therefore to be elevated to the position of Taoiseach, not that I would ever trust a member of Bertie's inner circle, corruption, much like misery loves company. Mr Cowen is not exactly a squeaky clean politician, in 1994, he was involved in a much forgotten controversy when it was revealed that he owned shares in a mining company at a time when he was Minister for Transport Energy and Communications, he divested himself of the shares when a newspaper found out about them, explaining that he has not acted improperly, and had not sold the shares to cover any wrongdoing, but rather to remove the possibility that the opposition might seize upon the apparent conflict of interest for political gain. In 1999, Cowen as Minister for Health grappled with Nurses who staged a prolonged strike, no real resolution was achieved and Cowen abandoned the mess and happily jumped ship to Foreign Affairs. In fairness, Cowen hasn't done a terrible job as Minister for Finance, he has pretty much kept things going and behaved as you would expect a Fianna Fail Finance Minister to behave, that is to keep the economy propped up as best you can, keep the vested interests of the party afloat for four years out of five and then deliver a few tax breaks and a couple of big public sector spends in the election year. Not fantastic for the average Joe Citizen, but a perfectly par for the course bit of Western European politicking. Question is, how will the less than photogenic image of Mr Cowen play out on election posters, we live in the digital media age, and politics and marketing grow closer and closer all the time. Bertie Ahern may not have been a male model, but he could put on that friendly face that seemed so good at beguiling the electorate, certainly FF last election poster campaign consisted on far more posters of their leader than posters of the local candidates. I don't think Cowen has that same photographable charisma. Of course, if it comes to a run off with Enda Kenny, a man whose charisma, charm and political acumen make him more suited to be the chairperson of a residents association in some gated community in an affluent suburb than the leader of the nation, Cowen will certainly take the upper hand. Eamonn Gilmore on the other hand is coming into his own as the Labour leader, and displayed tact and sophistication in his comments on the day Bertie stepped down, striking an even handed balance between paying tribute to the outgoing Taoiseach's accomplishments and subtly sticking the boot in, while keeping focus on his agenda as an opposition politician and on current governmental priorities. Compared to the squawking of Enda Kenny who was flapping about trying to convince people that a general election was just what the country needed, sounding like a small child trying to convince his parents that ice cream for dinner would be a fantastic idea. Clearly, interesting times ahead. (Shout your own slogan)
Tuesday, March 11th, 2008
4:23 pm	Aussie Rules Finger Removal Fetishists Reading Richard Herring's blog today I was intrigued by the story of the Aussie Rules footballer who solved a troublesome finger injury by having the offending half digit surgically lopped off. Googling reveals that there are in fact 2 such crazies in the Aussie rules world both of whom have very aussie names indeed. Brett Blackwell and Daniel Chick. (5 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
6:53 am	On a recent trip to the rather spiffy Chapter's premises on Parnell Street I noticed a large "Cult" section, at least I think it was labelled Cult. The relatively small section was awash with all sorts of beat literature, Kerauac, Bukowski, Burroughs and all of that, and also a bunch of Hunter S. Thompson's work. I had read "On The Road" by Kerouac, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson and "Naked Lunch" by Burroughs and thumbing through a book of Tom Wait's interviews recently I noticed Bukowski's name popping up again and again. Already this year I had read and enjoyed Hunter S' Hells Angels, so I picked up Kerouac's "The Dharma Bums", which is a pretty good read, very self-righteous and more than a little condescending where the Bhuddist preaching is concerned. This year then I will be mostly reading the works of the Beats, Factotum by Charles Bukowski is next on the list, to be started at lunchtime, after that I will be on a quest to find some Allen Ginsberg to read. I have been noticing an interesting connectivity between a lot of these books, In Hells Angels Hunter S. Thompson talks about introducing Ken Kesey (Who wrote "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest") and his LSD dropping entourage the Merry Pranksters to the Hells Angels and describes the drug fueled lunatic alliance that formed between them, something which provides the backdrop for a fair chunk of Tom Wolfe's "Electric Kool Aid Acid Test", which features in a fairly major role Neal Cassidy, who was the real life inspiration for Dean Moriarity in "On The Road". (2 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
1:27 pm	11 years ago, I was cycling home from school, and found a scrawny little kitten, abandoned on the side of a footpath not far from my house. Obviously starving and in a bit of a bad way I brought the little feller home, curled up in my bicycle helmet. Thinking that with 2 dogs at home a cat would be a bit outnumbered I had expected to keep the kitten for a couple of days and if it's rightful owner could not be found then send it off to the Cat Protection League or some such. However, as is often the case the tiny feline became part of the family and after some feeding up, treatment for chest and eye infections as well as ear mites and lice he made a place for himself. He was called Mel, partly because at the time Mel Smith was voicing Kite-Kat ads on the telly and partly because it was a gender non-specific name and we weren't very good at identifying kitten genetalia. Over the years the 2 dogs passed on, and Mel got more and more settled, although he was clearly the runt of his particular litter, never getting very big and prone to eye infections and various other illnesses. On Friday he was taken into the vet for an operation on his bladder and kidneys, he recovered well initially, but took turn for the worse over the weekend and was put to sleep yesterday. I'm gonna miss the fuzzy little bugger. ( In other news Castro steps down ) (8 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
9:26 am	London Calling Coming back to work yesterday after a few days in London, did not feel so good, spent the day squinting through a headache and trying not to throw up. ( London Calling ) Arrived home, to find my car, which had broken down the weekend before we left had been repaired, free of charge and with no complaint or arguement, despite the fact that technically my 3 month warranty had expired a week earlier. If you ever need a used car, go to Airport Used Car Centre on the Old Airport Road, seriously, you could not expect better service, the guy even offered to pick us up from the Airport when he heard we were away for a few days. Current Mood: refreshed (2 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Friday, January 18th, 2008
4:11 pm	I am ferociously tired, having been in work since 7:15am, I still have a few things that I need to do before I can go home, energy is in short supply. Bleh. On Monday, the band will be having it's 4th gig, this time playing an all accoustic (unamplified) set at the open mic session in the International bar. Bit wary of this, unamplified accoutic bass is not very loud, and will be completeing with a cajon drum, an accoustic guitar and whatever noisy punters there may be in the bar. Still, it's a good chance to try something different and it's an idea we've been throwing around for a while, and was a good opportunity to monkey about with the usual basslines so it should be fun. Feel free to drop by if you happen to be in that part of town on Monday evenin. It being a school night an' all I don't expect we'll be playing to anyone apart from the other musicians. (Shout your own slogan)
Monday, January 14th, 2008
8:51 am	Someone had their hand cut off by a bloke with a sword in a pub over the weekend. I wonder if they guards went looking for an old guy with a white beard in a cloak, The suspect was released after waving his hands at the arresting officer and saying "I am not the man you are looking for" (Shout your own slogan)
Thursday, January 10th, 2008
6:57 am	Less than 2 weeks into the new year and already a wealth of new experiences, the first ante-natal class happened on Monday morning, mostly an introduction to and assorted advice from the various departments within the Hospital. That followed my first experience of being breath tested by the guards which happened driving home on Saturday night, was stopped at a checkpoint outside the cop shop at Mountjoy prison. Being stopped at a Garda checkpoint without a full license is an unnerving experience, even if all they do is wave a torch over your tax and insurance discs and wave you on. Still driving from one side of the city to the other at midnight on a Saturday it's reassuring to think that the cops are out there filtering out at least some of the drunk drivers. The test itself starts with an odd pantomime of the guard showing you the testing machine and the separate plastic tube, which is wrapped in plastic. With the panache of an amateur conjurer he presents unwraps the tube and attaches it to the machine pointing out that at no time does he touch the mouthpiece. I make fun, but it is good to know that Health and Safety regulations are being followed. Then you have to blow into the tube for about a fortnight, until your face turns blue and you pass out onto the steering wheel, or at least, that's how it felt to me. Luckily enough I'd avoided the demon drink that night, Often if I'm driving I'd have considered having one beer with dinner or a glass of wine watered down with 7up, but had decided against it. All was well, test was passed and I was allowed to continue on. Hopefully, I will pass my driving test at the end of this Month and will no longer have to worry about a curious guard asking to see my license please. Before I can do that however I need to get a chip in my windscreen fixed, which thanks to windscreen cover should be free and since the Insurance company is paying, I booked a call out for the guy to come to my job and do the repair for me. Sometimes I think there's an awful lot of effort and expense that goes into car ownership, but then I spend up to 2 hours a day driving it to and from work, 2 hours that would otherwise be spent on public transport and it makes things like visiting my parents or going to band practice exponentially easier, also with a chizzler on the way having independent means of transport becomes pretty essential, it's not impossible to get around dublin by bus with a baby and the required baby paraphernalia I'm sure, it's just really difficult. One thing I will never understand is why some people spend so much time cleaning their cars, I will hoover the back seat of the car if I'm going to be carrying passengers, mostly because the back seat of the car is usually reserved for transporting the dog and is generally covered in her hair, and I did wash the Micra once, on a Summer Sunday afternoon when it had got so dirty I couldn't see out the windows, but that's about it. (3 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Monday, December 24th, 2007
10:46 am	MMVII reviewed As 2007 draws to a close, here is the usual end of year meme thingy This will be the 5th year that I've filled this thing out on Livejournal, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006. ( Annual year end survey wossname ) (4 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Monday, December 17th, 2007
4:14 pm	Turns out that setting yourself on fire often requires professional medical attention. After a five days of muddling through, I asked my cousin, a doctor to take a look at my burns to see if everything was looking ok, infection free and what not. While it did look Ok, I was told to go directly to St James' A & E dept and get it looked at. Which I did, it was looked at, blisters lanced, ointment and dressing applied, I was ordered to stay out of work for a week and told to come back daily for dressings, also was prescribed 2 different types of antibiotics and injected with a tetnus vaccine. After a week of treatment all is healing well, and looking much less like a horror movie. I almost have all my skin back, which is nice. Have to go back on friday for a final dressing, and then I'll be left on my own to look after it. The open fire in my sitting room has also been replace by a plug in sort of fire, which is altogether safer. In other news, other larger news is pending. Stay tuned, and keep watching the skis ! (Shout your own slogan)
Thursday, December 6th, 2007
8:59 am	At least I still have eyebrows On Tuesday night, after an unfortunate incident involving an open fire, innate clumsinesss and a bottle of nail varnish remover, I caught fire, in particular my trouser leg and my hand caught fire, only briefly, but long enough to leave some intersting marks on my arm and to remove a patch of skin from my leg. Thanks to quick thinking on the part of the missis and the speedy deployment of a fire extinguisher no damage was done to the house, it's fixtures, fittings or furnishings. My Brother in Law is an army medic, and he lives just around the corner, so one phone call later he arrived with a big bag of medic type stuff, and treated and dressed the burns. I'm healing quite nicely so far, blisters are going down and roaring red has faded to a more healthy looking sunburnt pink. Main concern now is the prevention of manky infections, so regular application of cooling gel, which takes the pain away and according to the bottle can help to prevent infection (manky or otherwise). After a day on the sofa re-watching Family Guy season one I'm back in work. (6 slogans | Shout your own slogan)
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
12:28 pm	No round envelopes for me, no way hose. Lastweek, I got a new desk, and some extra work to do, although the extra work is only falling to me in the short term, until another Team Lead can be found to take over. The new desk on the other hand I may just hang on to, it's on the sunny side of the building and I have a window, with a nice view of some mountains, a posh part of Dublin and the Water Tower end of UCD, although, the ugly concrete monstrosity that is the water tower is thankfully just out of sight. This makes up somewhat for the disappointment arising from the failure to record a live performance in the swanky tea rooms of Ardgillan castle at the weekend, the audio recording equipment gave up the ghost on Friday and we had to cancel at the last minute. It's for a DVD of Balbriggan based acts playing music in less than usual places, which Dermot has been working on for a while. Once new equipment has been sourced a re-recording elsewhere will be organized, perhaps in an art gallery. Also on my musical to-do list is contact Radio City about booking a gig early in the new year. In other news this week Evel Kenievel is dead, seems a bit strange really, he always seemed like one of those people who would live forever, although it seems that he hadn't been well for a while and should by all medical reason been dead ages ago. From what I've been reading he seems to have been less than the nicest bloke in the world. Driving to work the other morning, I noticed one of those flashing roadside signs that normally says "PREPARE TO STOP" had been damaged / modified and was camply flashing "O STOP" at passing motorists. (Shout your own slogan)