Sad Day For Me

I know I said I would only be back on Monday, but I lied! I came across the 2005 Bloggies last night and it kinda hit home how small and insignificant my blog is. Looking at some of these websites and the size of them and the traffic to them, put "Ciaran's Blog" in perspective. I may have recently broken the 1,000 hits on my counter, but this pales in comparison to some websites. Even Birding Babylon gets more hits than me and even had an article written about it! I mean, its about a guy who talks about the birds he sees while on duty in Iraq. Not wanting to belittle his hobby, but honestly, how is he getting all this traffic?

Another blog I came across was Gooner UK which is about a student in Kings College in London talking about getting drunk and the fact he's still a virgin. He has been mentioned in an article too. Its a blog about the everyday life of a student. You wouldnt think it could be so popular, but it is. Strange world we live in!

I would be betraying myself if I changed my blogging style just to get myself more hits and be written about in an article. I started this blog back in November 2004 to express myself to the world. I have been surprised by how many people actually read my blog, but I dont think its that much worse than some of these amazingly popular blogs. I think which blogs become massive is all down to luck. Maybe a journalist comes across it and writes about it, which then gets fired around the world through the media machine. It then becomes exponentially popular.

I just express myself and if people like it, then they'll read it, and if not, then so be it, I've expressed myself, which is what I wanted to do. But it would be nice to have some bit of a regular audience!

My Ugly Mug

So, here you have it. I've eventually got around to uploading all the photos that I want to display on my blog. Man, dial up is so annoying. The beauty of my fancy new photo is that it magically plucks a random photo out of fresh air each time you load the page. The obvious benefit to you is that you dont have to stare at the same stupid photo of me all the time. The benefit of it to me, is that you will keep refreshing to see the next photo, sending my hit counter through the roof! I haven't said which person I am in the photos, but if you cant figure it out, just hit F5 a couple of times and you should be able to spot the link!

I've tried making up excuses for only blogging every so often, but I'm not sure if they stand up to much scrutiny. I mean I could blog if I went completely out of my way, but thats just too much hassle. With a crap internet connection, life is just drained out of you and the will to say something interesting or funny is taken away from you by the "internet devil".

In my frustration at not being able to blog as much as I want to, I've reached a conclusion about blogging. The quality of your blogging is directly proportional to the quality of your internet connection. If you have a crap one, like me both at work and at home, its impossible to maintain a decent blog. Firstly you cant browse the net easily and quickly for things to blog about. And when you come across something that you want to share with the blogosphere, it takes ages to actually post it up. Researching the article or whatever so you can put in useful links is a nightmare, so readers have to do with just text.

I have a load of things that I've been meaning to blog about, but I just havent gotten around to it. From the start of next week, I promise to resume feeding you all with my high quality blogging.

In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my weekend with everyone at the UCC Volleyball Club who are coming up to Dublin this weekend to play in the UCD Blitz. Its a mixed volleyball tournament taking place in UCD all weekend and it promises to be an amazing weekend. Its not so much a test of who can play the best volleyball, but a test of volleyball while hungover and looking foward to the next night out all at the same time.

So, I wont be online at all over the weekend, but hopefully I will still be alive on Monday and I will give you the low-down on the weekend as well as starting my new "healthier blogging lifestyle" (which means I will actually blog about something!)

In the meantime, have fun laughing at my photographs. I could have just picked one good one, thats not embarrasing or stupid, but whats the fun in that? Also, people may start to think of me differently and hence thing my blogs are a load of crap after seeing my photo. But hopefully people will look past that and see my blogs for what they really are......... sheer quality!! (Anyone else agree?)

Neglecting My Duties

I must apologise for my terrible maintenance of my blog. I was just reading it there and noticed the big gaps in it. I would have liked to blog at least every two days, but it hasnt worked out that way. You see, it goes back to the place I work. For some reason they've blocked www.blogger.com which prevents me posting directly, but also to posting comments to those who have taken the time to comment on my blog (for which I'm grateful). The strange thing is that www.blogspot.com is available, so at least I can read some blogs. I may have complained about how slow the internet is here at work, but the funny thing is, it seems to be faster when I'm using Firefox. I think it has a faster way of rendering pages. You see, another perfect reason why you should ditch Internet Explorer!

Considering, I'm not really blogging about anything except my blog, I may as well get this over with. I'm in the process of adding my photo to my blog. You see, I dont have any one good photo that I want to upload, so instead I'm doing a little bit of javascript to display a random photo from about the 20 or so I select, each time you load the page. Nifty eh? I have it working, but now have to trawl through the thousands of photos I have to pick out some good ones.

The one annoying thing about Blogger is that for someone to comment, they must either be a Blogger blogger, or they can post anonomously. Considering Google have an open and non-proprietary air to them (in my opinion), they seem to be closing up Blogger pretty fast meaning you're either a Blogger blogger or an "everything-else" blogger. I'm considering HaloScan, but the damm thing about that, is that that too is also blocked at work, so I wont be able to comment then either! Anyone have a comment on Haloscan?

Hopefully if I get a chance, I'll do these two things in the next few days. I know ALL of you cant wait that long to see how beautiful I am, but unfortunately, this beautiful person is busy! :)

What ever next?!

I just came across this article (registration requried) on the NY Times in their technology section, which I read everyday and think is excellent.

The article is about the new phenomenon whereby a new facet of the "iPod economy" has emerged. Firstly, I didnt realise there was an iPod economy, but I also didnt realise jobs were growing in this economy. Seemingly, new businesses are being set up to load peoples' music collections onto their iPods. Hot shot lawyers dont have time to rip CD's, so college students get paid to rip these CD's while doing other stuff, like surfing online or playing the Xbox.

Feed My Pod is the example given in the article, but there are probably loads of them out there. A quick search for "iPod Loading" on Google throws up iRip, LoadPod and another article on it. According to the article, most of these "businesses" are just small time operations and are usually just one person doing it for friends, instead of large operations.

I'd be curious to know if people are actually selling their iPod music collection to transfer on to other peoples iPods? This new thing involves the customers actually owning the CDs. I imagine it does. If not, I should start it!

I just wonder, where will the iPod's influence end? Its already created a whole sub-culture and now its own little economy. Who thought a small white box could be so powerful?

Things I've noticed

So, some of my regular readers, of which there are quite a few (according to the links and number of hits, thank you everyone!) may have been wondering where I was for the past few days. I was in London for a reason I'd prefer not to reveal at the moment because ANYONE can read your blog.

Well, here are a few quick things I've noticed during my trip in London

• The London Underground is hot the year round, and not just the summer.
• I've never seen anyone on a plane use those sick bags, so why are they there? Could you not use the toilet instead?
• Continuing on the plane theme, what does the beep that everyone hears in the cabin about 30 seconds after take off actually mean?
• There are as many annoying tourists in London as during the summer as in the winter
  
• You'd be surprised who actually reads your blog. Someone who I didnt know, who I met in London has read my blog
• A packed Luas is a dream compared to a packed underground
• There are incredible amount of good looking women in London
• London isnt that much more expensive than Dublin

I'll add some more if I think of them, but I think thats about it.

J1 Visa Numbers in Decline

I guess I'm somewhat surprised by the article below, taken from the Irish Times, but not overly so. I mean, when I went to Boston in the summer of 2002, there were a lot of people there. The after effects of 9/11 on travel and security hadn't really kicked in yet,so all was hunky dory to a certain degree. There was a noticeable downturn in the economy with Irish students finding it hard to find jobs. Two of the twelve people I was living with barely worked a week all summer. And two others had to travel about 90 minutes each way to work. But this was nothing extremely out of the ordinary. Some J1 summers are good, some are a little tough. At the time, I didnt realise that the shine on doing a J1 was wearing off right before my eyes.

Over the years following my summer in Boston, numbers doing the J1 were falling as the security measures went up. I did an internship in New York in the summer of 2003 for 6 months. I had to go to the US Embassy in Dublin for an interview. I wasnt really surprised or bothered as I was working for longer than a J1 does, so I didnt see the measures as too much. J1's going in 2003 didnt have to attend the embassy. But in 2004 all J1's had to attend the embassy which is a complete pain in the ass for some student wanting to get drunk and have fun in the states. For me, my internship was part of my degree, I was getting paid a lot of money and it was more important to me than a J1 summer. So I didnt mind jumping through some hoops.

But as it turns out,J1 students now face a completely different situation. They are fingerprinted on entry, they have to attend an interview, which takes a full day to do if you're not from Dublin, they have to tell the US authorities exactly where they are at all times and yada yada yada. Basically, they have about 20 more hoops to jump through than I did for my internship and about 50 more than when I went on my J1 only 2 years previously.

So to hear that numbers for last year fell from 6,500 to 2,800 is amazing, but not entirely surprising. This was the first year people had to go to Dublin for an interview. When I went, I booked my flights, handed in my passport and got it sent back to me with a visa about 2 weeks later. Making fun-loving students complete these not so fun tasks completely dulled the J1 trophy. Why would someone bother doing all this, when they can go somewhere in Europe or stay at home and actually make money? I went to Boston with the intention of having fun, and not making money. I made some, but spent quite a bit. Thankfully I didnt have to make money as if my life depended on it, but some students do. When they do, they just ignored the J1 experience. Right after I came home, I would have strongly encourage anyone to do it, but I'm not so sure now. It is a great experience and I would still recommend it, but it has become soooo much more difficult to have an amazing summer. It is still possible, but seemingly the lazy students of Ireland couldnt be bothered putting in any effort, and instead have decided not to go.

US envoy tries to reverse decline in J1 student visas
John Downes

In an unprecedented attempt to reverse a dramatic decline in the numbers of Irish students taking part in the J1 summer visa programme, the American ambassador to Ireland is to address information seminars for students here.

Describing the decline in the programme's popularity as a "hugely important issue for us", Mr James C. Kenny said it allows students to learn that the US is not "what they just see on the front page of the headlines every day".

Under the J1 programme, Irish students can legally work and live in the US for a maximum of four months over the summer.

However, last year The Irish Times revealed that applications for the programme received by the student travel agency, USIT, had fallen from 6,500 to 2,800.

Mr Kenny said he was aware that there was some anti-US sentiment among students as a result of the war in Iraq, but he believed there were a number of other factors which had contributed to the decrease in applications for the programme.

These include the increased popularity of other countries such as Australia, the strong economy here - meaning students can easily find summer jobs at home - and tighter controls on entry procedures.

The J1 programme has long been seen as a traditional "rites of passage" by generations of Irish students. But students have been put off by tighter security controls since the September 11th attacks.

For the first time last year, any student wanting to participate in the programme was required to attend an interview in the US embassy in Dublin. This means students, from outside Dublin in particular, can be faced with significant additional travel expenses to attend the five-minute interview - which costs €100 through USIT.

Participants also face mandatory fingerprinting at airports, and must agree to register with the US authorities so that they can be tracked while in the country. A restriction on final-year students enrolling on the programme has also affected participation rates.

"By the end of the J1 season [last year], we were pretty disappointed," Mr Kenny said. "What we hope to do is get the numbers back up to where they were previously to 2004. I hope that we can . . . make it easier and more welcoming for people to come experience [the US]. Because I'm telling you it is a hugely important issue for us in America to be that way."

Mr Kenny added that he was prepared to miss this week's presidential inauguration, which takes place on Thursday, to focus on the new J1 recruitment drive. The information seminars will be held in TCD and UCC later today and tomorrow.

He ruled out any relaxation of the new procedures, and said the focus would be on making the process more streamlined.

To think that the US Ambassador to Ireland would go around the country and speak at events to encourage students to go to America is unprecented. When I went to a similar event in UCC in 2002, there was just one representative from USIT. It even made the main evening news on RTE. The following is taken from the USIT J1 website, which just goes to show the effort the US authorities are going to, to reverse this trend.

Letter from U.S Ambassador


Make 2005 Your Year to Visit America!
For many young men and women across Ireland, thoughts are already turning to next summer and plans are being made on how to spend it. If you are one of those people, I have a suggestion for you - come to America!

Under the J-1 Summer Work Travel visa program, thousands of young Irish will be able to live, work and travel in the United States next summer for up to four months. Not only will you be able to experience America's vibrant culture and make new friends, but you will also be able to teach us about Ireland and Europe. We believe you will come away with good impressions of our country and people, and we are confident you will give us a better understanding of Ireland and the rest of Europe.

The "visa season" starts in January and we are determined this year to make this process as smooth and easy as possible for you. We work with a number of organisations that recruit students for summer exchanges and we urge you to work through them to find the best possible opportunities for your "summer in the States."

So if you've been thinking about spending the summer of '05 in America, now is the time to start applying! We look forward to hosting thousands of young Irish in the United States this year and I personally hope YOU are one of them!

James C. Kenny
U.S. Ambassador to Ireland

If you ask me, they've brought it on themselves. They're making life difficult for students that want everything the easy way. Its a shame that its happening, and hopefully the efforts of James C. Kenny & Co will reverse this trend.

My Moment Of Glory

This morning as I got ready to go to work (I was running a little late, as usual) I was listening to the Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show on Today FM, as I always do. There was a news item on the 8.30am news bulletin that the salads in Pizza Express in the UK are very high in calories, something to the tune of being equivalent to 2 Big Macs. The newscaster said that thankfully they arent in Ireland, which I immediately saw as incorrect.

So, I texted into the show saying that they do exist, but that they are called Milano. After the sports news, my text was read out by Ian Dempsey! He never called out my name though :( They were all really surprised. Thanks to me, Ian Dempsey and his gang as well as all his listeners now know that Pizza Express are called Milano in Ireland.

Anyone who has been to both (as I have) will immediately notice the similarities. I've no idea why they changed the name in Ireland, but they did! Did anyone actually hear that this morning? Probably not. But I'm happy. The world listened to me as I pointed something terribly wrong with the world.

I guess, Milanos will be seeing a drop off in Irish people buying salads! And its all thanks to me!

Good News For Africa

It has just been announced that the British Government will pay 10% of Africa's debt so they can spend that money on things like health, education and welfare. He points out that work at the IMF and World Bank level still needs to be done however. Not surprising really.

E-mails

I read this article the other day and it put me thinking. While I can commend Yahoo's privacy policy, and their willingness to stick by it in even the most extreme circumstances, I still think they should give the family access to their dead son's e-mail account before it gets deleted after not being used for 30 days. While this is being resolved, I hope Yahoo have at least made a backup of the e-mails because it would be terrible for it to be deleted before they resolve the situaion.

Having had experience of losing a family member, I can understand fully how being denied access to your loved one's final thoughts would be really upsetting.

Donation to Charity

So, I'm just after donating some money to Trocaire, an Irish aid agency that is heavily involved in giving aid to Africa. It is also part of the Irish aid mission to the tsunami victims in Asia. I donated to them for a number of reasons. They're an Irish aid agency, but also they gave me the option when I'm donating as to where I want my money to go to. I chose Sudan because Africa is a place that will always need money, whereas areas affected in Asia will recover in time.

Bob Geldof was recently quoted in an article on the BBC website as saying the following regarding the tsunami. He has called on people to not forget about Africa. I think this quote sums things up very well

"The tsunami must be dealt with. It is an act of God, an act of nature, Africa is an act of man. Millions die every year completely unnecessarily. That can be adjusted, we can actually resolve that issue. I don't think we can resolve problems like earthquakes and tidal waves. We can be warned against them."

I agree with him as I think people are getting caught up in the moment and media hysteria surrounding the tsunami, while completely ignoring other terrible diasters. Another person voicing these concerns is Lord Hurd, so it seems Bob Geldof is not alone.

"Former Foreign Secretary Lord Hurd has voiced concerns the focus on the Asian tsunami disaster will divert funds away from aid to Africa."

Tsunami In Asia

Firstly, let me set a few things straight. I fully agree that the tsunamis caused by the earthquake in the Indian Ocean that affeced many countries and led to the immediate death of about 150,000+ people is horrific. I haven't been, but from reading the news and watching the tv, it is beyond belief how terrible it is.

But, (and so begins my probably controversial blog), aren't things like this happening all over the world everyday? I vaguely remembering a comparison between the tsunami and hunger and starvation in Africa. It went along the lines that the same number of people are dying through lacking basic food in Africa on a regular basis, as that died in the tsunami.

It seems to me that the main reason why the entire world has come to the aid of the countries in Asia is because of the large number of foriegners who have died. I think at last count, there are 450 British people confirmed dead, and probably up to 2000 (thankfully, only Ireland's second death was confirmed today). Western countries have an interest in this tragedy because their own citizens were directly affected. When countries are out helping to look for their own citizens, it would be rude not to help out the locals a bit!

You see, the way I see it, not many foriegners travel to Africa, so even if such a tragedy happened there, chances are, the reaction to it would largely be lip service, with token gestures of aid been sent. What made this so real and in your face is the fact that it was one single (well, you know what I mean) event that occurred without notice and one that was caught on tape for the world's media to show 24/7. It has been said many times, that 9/11 may have not even happened if the terrorists knew that the attacks wouldnt get shown on live tv because it wouldnt have such a big impact.

Anyway, back to the tsunami. This whole blog was prompted by my flatmate Paul just a while ago. He said that its amazing that everyone is giving this massive amount of money (with Irish people donating up to €40million. €40million, thats a HUGE amount of money) when there are many things that this money could be spent on in Ireland, but even Africa or other terribly hit places. Companies seem to be falling over each other in dontating money to the diaster fund (and taking some nice publicity on the way). After talking with Paul, I had a shower and was thinking about what he said, which prompted me to write this.

I've been meaning to donate myself. My initial reaction, was that even though I dont usually donate large amounts of money to charity, this seems to be the perfect opportunity to change that. But I think I'm not going to donate to the tsunami diaster fund. And here's why. Billions of dollars (on a side note, why use US dollars as the denomination for the total amount of money donated. The US aren't even the largest contributors) has been pledged already, so my couple of euros wont make much of a difference. My main reason for not contributing directly to the diaster fund if because I want it to be part of a political gesture acknowledging that there are many diasters occuring all around the world, that because the West doesnt have any direct connection with, gets ignored.

Before you all slate me for not donating to the fund, I will actually be donating to it. You see, as part of my company's "Corporate Citizenship" and them trying to give the impression they actually care about things other than money, they are offering to match the contributions of their employees, up to a measly $500,000 on a global scale. Thats only $5 per employee. Put in context, the company that I work for had annual profits of $690million last year. I can simply fill in an online form on the intranet saying I've donated €X and they'll match it. However, I can imagine that by now, other employees have donated up over $500,000 and my donation, that actually isnt going to the diaster fund, will not actually be matched by the company.

Having recently finished Globalisation and its discontents by Joseph Stiglitz, I think my reaction to the actions of the Western governments has been tainted and treated with a degree of suspicion. The World Trade Organisation have donated $250million towards the diaster fund and kindly frozen the repayments on the loans with huge interest, which they shouldnt have given to these countries, but did anyway because they seem to know whats best, even though they know little about how their country reall works. It was this interfering by the WTO that led to these countries melting down a few years ago and prevented them from recovering. I wonder why the WTO doesnt freeze the loans of poor African nations who are crippled by loan repayments of up to 50% of GDP, when these countries suffer from massive droughts? It goes back to the fact that African countries are basically used by the West and raped for all they're worth. To give a quick example, the WTO wants to improve poor countries opening up their markets to western imports, but prevents these countries from exporting into the western markets. Why? Because their products are much cheaper and wouldnt be good "nice". Trying to rectify is basically whats being "talked" about, but not acted upon in the latest WTO round of trade talks in Doha.

I havent yet decided who I'm going to donate for, but I will soon. This diaster might actually be a good thing because it will give the aid agencies a chance to highlight the ongoing diasters occuring in the world this very second. I heard some head of an aid agency on the tv the other night say how this outpouring of generosity should be harnessed into political power which can be used to pressure national governments. However, I reckon once the next big tv item happens (which will allow Sky News butcher it to death and have 24/7 coverage), the world will have forgotten about the ..... "whats the japanese sounding word for a big wave again?!"

Firefox

I recently changed over to Firefox as my internet browser. I had already downloaded the beta version a while back and liked it, but a few things annoyed me about it so I just continued to use Internet Explorer. However, they've now released version 1.0 so a few things have been fixed. I downloaded it the other night and I've only been using this. Its very similar to IE, but it has a few cool things such as integrated search facilities for a load of search engines, it uses tabbed browsing which I find handy and a couple of other things. I love all the extra extensions you can get such as a download manager and gmail notifier.

I do have one thing against Firefox. There's a little bug when I'm adding a posting in my blog. From the Create Posting screen, I can press "CRTL + S" to publish the post. However, CRTL + S is also the shortcut to save the page. So when I use the shortcut, it pops up the save as box before publishing the post. Only a little thing that I should get over. Other than that, I love it.

I'd strongly recommend using is so spread the word and donwload it. This is the kind of thing that has spread totally on word of mouth. Also, from reading other blogs, it seems that a high proportion of bloggers use it.

I just checked my blog and it seems that 14% of users have Firefox, with 82% using IE. Quite a good statistic. I'm not sure how many of that 14% is down to me, but still and good statistic none the less.

Flatmates

One of the things that I've meant to blog about for ages is flat mates. Actually that reminds me of something else. What do you call people you share an apartment with? Apartment mates? House mates? Flat mates? Room mates? I mean, they're not room mates, as I dont share a room with them. I dont live in a house or a flat. I live in an apartment. But still, apartment mates doesnt sound right. I think flat mates does. So from now on, I'll use that.

Anyway, I reckon I've been pretty lucky with who I've lived with in the past. The first time I lived away from home was in Boston in 2002, which was probably one of my best summers ever. I was living with 11 other people is a really cool house. I got along with everyone and it was just basically brilliant. When I came back from Boston, I moved into Brookfield with random people. I was living with Gordon, Brian and Eimear. They were all really nice and we got on really well. But they annoyed me a little bit when they didnt clean up after themselves straight away and I sometimes just cleaned up their mess. Maybe I'm just really clean, or they were a little messy. Either way, it was good fun. Then I moved to New York for my internship in April 2003 and lived with 2 lads in my class. I didnt really know them before, but we got on really well and we got an amazing apartment in Hoboken, NJ with a massive rooftop that had views of Lower and Mid-Manhattan. That was an amazing summer, but again I found myself the only one that really cleaned the house. They were pretty content living in a mess and seeing their bathroom that they shared and their room pretty much confirmed this. But all in all, they were really cool and we had some great nights there. Man I'd love to be back there.

When I came back from NY I lived with other random people in Brookfield. However, this was definitely the best place I've ever lived. I was living with the one and only Mr Giuseppe Previti, one Ms Kellie Morgan and the now infamous Bitch from Midelton a.k.a. Edel something-or-other, I cant remember and dont really care either. As you may have guessed, Peppe was from Italy and Kellie was from California (or Kelliefornia as she liked to say!) In a word, amazing. I had so much fun living there. It really helped that both of them played volleyball, so it really was like living in a family. I think we actually decided when we were talking to Edel that she was the mother, I was the father and Peppe and Kellie were the children. Anyway, others in the volleyball club always mentioned how completely crazy and mental our place must have been to live in. I could go on about this for ages, but I think I'll do it justice and actually blog about it separately. In summary, it was they were the coolest flat mates ever.

Which leads me on to the place I'm currently living in. I'm sharing a "Penthouse" apartment with 3 others, Paul, Neil and Anne Marie. Neil and Anne Marie are a couple, but its not really an issue at all. All very nice people. I think I get on the best with Paul because he's the most similar to me. If I was to say who annoys me the most, its probably Anne Marie. She can be annoying at times! But we all get on great. I have a massive room with a King sized bed no less! But a common theme that runs through my life living away from home is that I see myself as the only one who really cleans the place. I mean, they all clean up after themselves and wash up, but they never really wipe down the counter top, table or cooker after they're finished. And as for brushing up the floor, I dont think they ever do it. When I moved in, I spent an hour or two just cleaning up the kitchen and bathroom so I wouldnt get sick. It was pretty dirty. The bathroom that I share with Paul was manky, so I spent a while cleaning it. I dont think Paul has ever cleaned it. Why should he, he's happy not doing it, and besides, I do it, so even if he wanted to clean up, I just do it for him.

But having said all the bad things about living with other people, I still couldnt live on my own. It would just be so lonely. I mean, I've stayed at home all weekend, and I find it pretty boring and lonely. A friend did call over last night and watched Kill Bill I, but other than that I stayed at home. I dunno, maybe I'm always going to be the person who cleans up. I'm not sure if someone cleaner than me exists. I reckon so, but I havent lived with them yet.

I'm also curious as to what I'm like to live with. Do I do annoying things? Well, Kellie?

De Luas

Something that's surprised me is that other people are actually reading my blog. Looking at the statistics of who's visited my blog is interesting. Another nice thing is that TWO other people have actually linked to my blog. This has given me added motivation to keep my blog updated because other people depend on it! They actually read my blog and are somewhat interested in what I say.

As a regular Luas user, I noticed before Christmas these poles by every stop. As work progressed on them, I grew more curious as to what they are. If anyone reading this uses the Luas and knows that I'm talking about, I'm sure you're just as curious as I am as to what they are. Well, thanks to my flat mate, Neil who's very well versed on all things public transport tells me that they're scanners for a new integrated ticket system to be used on the Luas and Dublin Bus. It was annoying me a lot before Christmas, but now that I know what they are, I can sleep easily.

Having lived in London for a few months over the summer, I used the Oystercard which is the undergrounds equivalent smart card. I absolutely loved it, as it didnt mean fumbling for a ticket to put through the machine. All I had to do was swipe my wallet, which contained the Oystercard over a sensor and the gate opened. However, anytime I used the Docklands Light Rail I never bothered touching it against the sensor, as you could just walk on to the train. Considering the Luas is the same, I doubt anyone will really use it. I mean if you have a weekly, monthly or annual ticket, then there's no reason to touch your card against the sensor at the stop. And here's why: If you get checked on board the train, it makes no difference if you've touched it against the sensor. The only reason you should touch it against the sensor is if you have a pre pay card where you have say €10 in your card and it deducts the fare depending on where you get on and off.

So basically, after that pretty boring discussion, I can conclude that this new system will barely be used. Actually I had this conversation with Neil after he told me what those things were and it seemed interesting. I suppose thats because he's totally into his public transport and I just wanted to find common ground with him. Speaking of Neil, he turned off my laundry last night and when I went to open the door, there was still water in it because he turned it off half way though the cycle. Still though, you'd imagine that they machine wouldnt let you open the door if there is water still in it. Anyway, he cleaned it up as it was his fault and my clothes didnt get destroyed, so all is good.

Dancing On The Streets

I guess I've neglected my blog in recent times. I set out a few months ago with the intention of maintaining a regular blog. But as I've said before here, things worked against me in doing this, mainly decent internet access. However, this has been rectified by me getting internet at my apartment. So in future, I should have no excuses. In the next few days, I'll attempt to remember all the things I've been meaning to blog about, but couldnt because it was too frustrating to try and do it at work on a Third World internet connection. Well, here goes.

One interesting and annoying thing that I noticed recently is how people walk on the streets. I think I've mentioned it before on my blog about how annoying it is to be walking towards someone else and neither of you know which side of the footpath to go on. For me anyway, it usually ends up in both of us doing a little sing and a dance as we walk towards each other and nearly bumping into each other. It usually ends in a "I'm sorry" and both of us walk away a little embarrased. I think I've cracked it though. I've formulated a fool proof way of avoiding this dancing around strangers (I'm assuming most want to avoid this, but if you like doing this, skip forward a few lines). When you're walking towards someone and the dancing ritual is inevitable, just look away from them, keep your head down and just walk straight ahead. When they realise that you're no longer looking at them, they realise that its up to them to "take evasive actions". So they just walk around you, and no awkward situation. However, a problem occurs when they look away too, but if you think they're the type to always look at you, then my method is foolproof.

Another thing I've noticed related to this and happened to me just a few days ago was how people walk around corners. You'd imagine that no one would walk around the corner blindly, and take a wide berth around the corner so they can see clearly. But this doesnt happen. People insist on walking around a corner right by the wall without knowing if anyone is around the corner. A few days ago, I was walking up to a corner near the wall and intended walking straight across the road, without turning the corner. However, some wise guy decided to walk around the corner and walked in to me. The inevitable startled jump of both of us occurred. Thing is neither of us will remember not to do that again. I guess its just one of those small things.

I'm Alive!!

So just to quash any rumours that I'm dead, I'm just posting a quick message to prove otherwise! Things have been pretty busy in the life of Ciaran recently so I havent been able to post. This combined with the fact I have CRAP ALL internet access makes it next to impossible to do this. So I'm having to e-mail this post, which is mucho-annoying.

Anyway, all is about to change. I got the phone in the apartment reconnected last night, which is done and was very painless. The next step is to get broadband which I thought would be easy. Other people said Eircom were crap, but after the dream phone call last night getting it reconnected (admitedly I was on hold for about 10 minutes) I thought they had it wrong.

However, calling up today and speaking with "yer one" about broadband changed my mind. Their systems werent updated yet, so they couldnt sign me up. I'm going to sign up online so I get a special offer, but surprisingly I couldnt do this at work because the internet is so God damm crap! Anyway, bottom line is that I'll have to wait a few days so their systems get updated and my new phone number is recognised as such before I can get broadband. And also it will take 10 days to get it, unlike the 5 I was told last night! And I cant have it delivered anywhere else other than the billing address. If I wanted to change that, I had to call 1901. To complain about the website (which as it turns out was working fine, but not for me) I had to call Eircom.net. Bottom line is that she could only tell me what was in her script and she didnt want to help me very much except pass the buck.

In summary, Eircom are crap. However, I wont write them off yet. I'll update you on this ongoing saga. Now that I have a phone, I can call friends cheaply, and until I get broadband, I can use dial up, which will be a massive improvement on the shite they call the internet at work!

Adios.

P.S. I'm crazy busy at work. Did 10.5 hours last night and will be doing the same tonight and maybe have to work Saturday!