Almost There!

I've only 2 days of work left! Woo hoo! And I dont think those final 2 days will be too taxing either. I'm going out for pints with my work gang tomorrow night and Friday night too. I'm going out tomorrow night with my start group, who are mostly just out of college like me. While on Friday, I'm going a bit up market with the people I work with on a daily basis. Or should that read "worked" with?

So, you my avid blog reader may be wondering what I'm going to do once I finish work? Well, I'm going to go travelling silly. The plan is to go to Florida, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and California for almost 2 months. Well thats the plan anyway. I've been pricing flights and they come to about €1350, which isn't bad for 21,690 miles or 49 hours and 31 minutes flying time! Thats almost as many miles as a round the world trip, and it costs less! I'm hopefully going to get things tied down pretty soon so I can start booking. When I get that sorted, I'll unveil my grand itinerary!

I'm also planning to keep a travel blog, with as many photos as possible. I'm actually thinking of migrating my blog to LivingDot.com as I'd like to have my name up in lights - ciaranmartin.com sounds good! Feel free to leave a comment if you have any suggestions where I could host my site. You see, I could sign up to Flickr but thats $4/month, whereas LivingDot is $10 but I can put anything else on there too.

......oh ya, I apologise for not updating my blog in ages and I promise to update it everyday from now on! (It gets a bit repetitive doesn't it?)

Rate My Teacher

Someone at work told me about the website RateMyTeacher they heard about on the radio this morning. Its a website where students and ex-students go to rate their teachers. I just had a look at it and it brought all the memories back. I read the reviews of some of our teachers, and even though I left in 2000, the teachers haven't changed one bit, still using the same catchphrases and so on. Its funny to look back and see how somethings never really change.

My school, Christian Brothers College is the most rated school in the country, which is kind of cool. All of the teachers in my school are listed here so you can view students comments on each of them. I really enjoyed going to school there, and this website is making me smile and giggle spontaneously today!

You should check out your school. If you're like me, it will bring back all the good memories!

I'm Rich!

I always knew my blog was priceless, but according to BlogShares my website is worth $3000.98, with the current share price of $63.30 and a high of $162.78. Impressive eh?

I just came across it last night by accident. It reminds me of Celebdaq which is basically a stock market for celebrities. BlogShares is pretty much the same thing for blogs. I've already signed up and done a few trades and I reckon it could get quite addictive. It works on the idea that the more links into and out of a blog indicate its value. This combined with trading sets the share price. When I found this website, I discovered that LoopDiLoop had bought 2,500 shares of mine, for half nothing, meaning that its going to be expensive for me to get 50% of my own blog.

Thing is, I wish I could cash in my blog value, but unfortunately, its all fantasy.

Just a regular Saturday

On Saturday, I was helping out at the Irish Volleyball Association Cup Finals being held in UCD Sports Centre. In case you didn't know, I play volleyball with UCD Volleyball Club having played with UCC Volleyball Club before that. I got roped into helping out, but I didn't really mind as it was a fantastic day of very high level volleyball.

The day began at 11am with the school girls final involving Claremorris and Naas. I must say, I was incredibly impressed at the level from the school girls. Some of them can even play better than me! Well not quite! I am pretty good!! :) My official title for the day was "Awards Co-ordinator" which I find quite funny. Basically my job was to organise the awards cermony after each of the matches. For the schools final, Pat Hickey from the Olympic Council Of Ireland presented the awards, so I got to meet him. Hopefully when you might even see me on the TV as I pass the medals to Pat Hickey when it is shown on Setanta Sports next Monday at 9.50pm (TBC).

Anyway, after that UCD were playing Newbridge Volleyball Club in the women's cup final. While UCD were expected to retain their tropy without too much effort, I am glad to say that it was an excellent match, with UCD only winning by 3 points in the 5th set. It was a very exciting game, with some amazing attacks and defence by both teams. In the end, the better team probably won. You see, as a player with UCD you'd imagine I would love for them to win, but having played with UCC before, a rival of UCD, my heart was torn. Besides, the UCD women's team have dominated at both university and national league level, so for the sake of volleyball, I wanted a close game.

After that, there was the men's cup final with DCU Volleyball Club playing Aer Lingus Volleyball Club. It was a shame that it clashed with the Wales - Ireland Six Nations rubgy match, but looking back, people may have been better off watching the volleyball instead. There were quite a few people watching this match, but not as many as the other matches. In the end, DCU won by 3 sets to 0, but it was actually quite a close match, with DCU only winning each set by a few points.

Overall, it was an excellent day, and the night out afterwards where everyone had to wear a stupid hat, was good fun too. Not having a stupid hat, I just wore an afro wig with a baseball hat, which I suppose was quite good. Shame I forgot my camera though. I'll put up some of the photos tonight hopefully on the UCC Volleyball Club Gallery. Anyway, it won me a pitcher of Fosters, which I forgot to cash in. Woops!

Blogspot - v- NYTimes

Without wanting to rip off the entire MicroPersuasion blog, I found this blog interesting. It says that the all the blogs on blogspot.com are collectively more popular that the NYTimes. As a daily NYTimes reader and a blogger, I find it interesting that one of the biggest newspapers around today, is being overshadowed by the new revolution in the media world.

The NYTimes have written about blogs before, but they dont include blogs as part of their news coverage, unlike the Guardian News Blog

Another interesting blog is the An Eight Step Program for Blog Addiction, which is well worth a read. I think I might start doing step 2, "Post in the morning", as I dont get any work then anyway!

Who's More Propular?

I came across Preople on the interesting blog MicroPersuasion last night. Its a weird little thing that searches for your name on a few different search engines, and gives you a popularity rating. I got a rating of 241, which put in context of the top 5 is poor.

The Global top 5 makes for interesting reading:

• Britney Spears 11,200,000
• Madonna 11,200,000
• Harry Potter 10,600,000
• George W Bush 9,320,000
• Michael Jackson 7,260,000

How a fictitious character makes it into the top 5 is kind of weird, but I guess not surprising.

So, are my readers more popular than I am? Surely not. Feel free to leave a comment with your "Preople Rating".

Crappy St Patricks Day

That should read Happy St. Patricks Day, but its not really a happy one for me as I'm in work. I mean come on, its the Irish national holiday, but I was still asked to work. Does my employer (I'll reveal who they are if anyone cares, once I've finished work on April 1st) and managers not have any heart or national pride whatsoever?

I only rolled out of bed at about 11.15am this morning because I was in no mood to get up early and work on St. Patricks Day. When I got on the Luas at about 12pm, it was absolutely packed. Its been busy before, but my God was it full today. It doesnt even come close to morning rush hour. It must have been over the limit of about 350 easly.

Anyway, unsurprisingly, there were loads of Americans around Dublin today, including at the Luas stop. They were joking around about how they're going to push their way on. As to how the quite large guy expected to get on, is really beyond me. Even the smallest person in the group would have had difficulty getting on. After a litle bit of manoeuvering on the platform, I lined myself up to where I always wait - right by one of the doors. They opened and I saw my opportunity - about 5cm square of floor space just inside the door. I got on and knew that the doors closing would shove me inwards, and safely on board. Which is exactly what happened. I was the only one to get on board at that door.

But the doors opened again because someone was obviously standing in the door elsewhere, I heard this gang of Americans say "How did he get on?" in reference to me. If I was faster, I could have cracked some joke, like "Luck of the Irish, I guess" or something. You see, that always happens me. I always think of something funny after the opportunity has long since gone. And when I thought of this, the opportunity was about 2km back down the track!

On my 2 minute break from the office earlier to get some lunch, I saw so many non-Irish people. Its good to see so many tourists, but honestly, all I heard was foreign voices. One guy had a shamrock painted on his face with the words "Kiss me I'm Polish" written on it, which I found funny.

So you must forgive me, but my experience of St. Patricks Day 2005 has been pretty poor really. I would have loved to walk around Dublin today in the nice weather wearing my obligatory green item of clothing and watch the young scumbags get drunk and make a nuisance of themselves, but instead I'm at work, not doing any work!

The Finer Points Of International Politics

I don't think George W. & Co will be too happy about what these boys are doing!

I dont have an opinion on the situation, but I think the sheer audacity of the Iranians is hilarious!

Now who said that international politics is boring?

New York, Craigslist & Starbucks

For those of you that know me, I spent 6 months working in New York City in 2003. I absolutely loved it, and while I was there, I lived by 2 websites: NYTimes and Craigslist. I checked these websites everyday, and still do. Craigslist not so much now because its kinda pointless when you're not living there, but NYTimes is an excellent website. When I do read Craigslist, I always read their best of.

For those of you that haven't heard of Craigslist is one of the best free ads website around. It has everything from jobs, apartments, personals. Basically anything you can imagine. I'd strongly recommend reading the best of. Some of them are truly hilarious. There's actually a Dublin version of Craigslist, but hardly anyone uses it.

The reason I'm talking about this, is because this article in the NYTimes today, reminded me about a rant that made the Craigslist Best Of where the person gave out about ordering a "venti-semi-skimmed-tall-mocha-crappacino" (or something similar). I actually just found it here so you can enjoy it in its full glory instead of me giving a crap and completely unfunny re-hash of it.

I found the article really funny and I can completely identify with the author. I actually go to West Coast Coffee almost everyday for a "grande mocha". I want to order a large chocolate flavoured coffee, but social etiquette forces me to say the above.

While searching for a link to West Coast Coffee, I came across this article which details how Starbucks is coming to Ireland. Looks like the McDonalds of the coffee industry is on the way. It was inevitable really.

So, I gotta get back to work. I might take a break later and go get myself a "grande mocha"!

Le weekend!

It wasnt a good weekend for me in sporting terms: Ireland lose to France in the Six Nations and then Spurs lose to Newcastle in the FA Cup Quarter final! Not good!

But on a brighter note, I've confirmed my final day at work - April 1st! No joke, I'm finishing work in Dublin in 12 days time, and not a moment too soon! I've put my room on Daft and the replies have been coming thick and fast. I didnt expect there to be any problem renting the room, but I reckon I could rent it for €50 more if I wanted to. I've had 9 enquiries so far, with each of them very interested. The others in the house will probably prefer a single person, so that rules out 4 people straight away. A shame really, as one Spanish couple seemed really excited about it. But 2 couples in the apartment would probabaly be too much. If any blogger is interested in my room, then preferential treatment may be given! But I reckon, the first person to dole over the cash and give me a deposit gets the room. Thats how I got the place originally - first person to give a deposit.

You may wonder why I'm bothering as I'm leaving so soon, but I collected my eircom broadband modem from the post office today. I got a 2 month free trial, but I'll be lucky to get 3 weeks out of it. I dont care though, its free. I should have got it ages ago, but their sheer incompetence quickly scuppered that one.

I was told I was going to be switched on March 9th, last Wednesday, with my modem to arrive a few days before. On Tuesday, it still hadn't arrived, so I called them up. I was told, they "forgot" to send me a modem! I mean come on! They eventually sent it out, and in fairness, they tried to deliver it Friday, but I wasn't at home. I had ordered a wireless modem, but they have ran out. When I called up Tuesday, my line was actually activated on March 4th, 5 days early! Wow, eircom, early?

So hopefully, my next blog will be from the comfort of my own home using the super dooper eircom broadband (which pales in comparison to DSL in the UK which will soon run at 8MB)

Do they ever learn?

I'm just after reading this article and am completely disgusted and horrified. The IRA offered the McCartney family to murder those involved in the shooting of Robert McCartney. It seems that they never seem to learn. I dont really get Sinn Féin/IRA. After all they've done recently, you think they'd have a bit of sense. In the past they've shown themselves to be quite smart in how they've approached things, but this is the completely wrong thing to say. I hope that things change, but it seems that they haven't really moved on that much.

I'm A Loser

For the 2nd week in a row, I've lost a cup final. Last weekend, my team lost the GMIT mixed tournament, and this weekend, the men's team lost in the Munster Cup final being hosted in WIT. Its good that we're getting this far, but why aren't we winning it?

But it was a great weekend overall. The women won the cup pretty easily, which makes up for our loss. One of the main reasons I wanted to go was to have a weekend in Waterford. But I also went because, otherwise I would have had to work the weekend - both Saturday and Sunday which I obviously didnt want. I was looking forward to going out in Waterford to check it out. Its a nice city and I had fun on Saturday night, but I wouldnt be in mad rush back there. Gimme Galway anyday. There were a few dodgy characters in the club and pub, and the place was full of dudes! Not what you want really. Although there was a little bit of eye candy, but not much!

I had intended getting back home early yesterday, but that didnt work out as I only got the 6.30pm train home. I havent slept properly, done laundry, or lazed about in weeks and was looking forward to doing it yesterday, but I only got home at 10pm last night. Ah well!

I reckon I have another long week ahead of me, which I'm not looking forward to, but I only have 5 weeks of work left here!

A Legend

Yesterday morning I woke up to My Lovely Horse on the radio. (I couldnt stop singing it all day!) It was being played because it is Dermot Morgan's birthday tomorrow. He was responsible for that now infamous comedy series Father Ted.

For anyone who knows Father Ted and Dermot Morgan, they will agree with me in saying that is is a legend.

May He Rest In Peace