I’m a little surprised I managed to make it to number five..
My abstract distraction this week is :
Takeaway food. My usual meal preparers are away at the moment, so rather than cook things myself I’ve been ordering dinner every night. And if I eat breakfast or lunch it tends to all be bought from the local Spar or Centra. Very unhealthy, quite expensive, but my god, it’s good.
Something that made me laugh this week :
This post by Twenty Major. This guy is simply hilarious, but a post all about whether or not to take a shit while waiting for someone to arrive? You can’t beat that sort of material. There really should be more posts on this topic in the blogosphere.
Curses on :
The ridiculous amount of people stopping to ask me for directions this week. I think I’ve had more people ask me for directions in this week alone than the rest of my life. Am I giving off some aura of local knowledge or something?
Bear in mind that I always have earphones in while walking, so why is it that old people never seem to notice this? Instead of tipping me on the shoulder or making a gesture to remove the earphones, they just start talking to me. I then have to ensure they’re actually trying to talk to me, remove my earphones, apologise (for minding my own fucking business), and ask them to repeat what they said. Then I have to explain that I’m a geographical ignoramus, and have no clue about directions. As an example of this, just a few weeks ago I learned what street O’Connell street is in Dublin city centre. I live just one bus ride from the city centre. And who taught me this little lesson? My friend from Wexford.
Also, curses on my laptop for breaking. The bastard screen was dodgy and flickering for quite a while, and it finally reached the point that I could no longer use it. I was told it would cost over €300 to fix it, so bollocks to that, the whole thing itself is probably not even worth that.
I’m pleased with :
My new laptop! Oh, she’s nice. When in the local computer place after they told me they couldn’t fix my old laptop, I told them I was interested in getting a new one. (This was an understatement, I was absolutely desperate to get a new one, I need it for work).
“What sorta thing are you looking for?”
“Well I was looking at the ones you have over there, they’re way too low spec for my liking, I need a minimum 3gb of RAM”
“Oh right” - At this point they realised I was a bit of a nerd and stopped treating me like the common computer illiterate fool, I love when this happens.
“I was looking online, you know laptopsdirect.ie? They’ve some good machines at good prices. “
“Yeah? What kinda stuff then? We could probably match it, or at least upgrade the ones you see there”
“Yeah, some good ones for around €700, we’re talking 250gb Hard-Drive, 3gb RAM, you know…I mean, I’d rather buy from here, local business, y’know?” (This was a lie, I couldn’t give a bollocks)
“Well we got this machine in the back here, let me have a look at the spec for you”
Basically, they admitted to me later that once someone comes in and sort of knows their stuff, they’re going to get a better deal. When people come in and don’t have a clue, they’re liable to pay over the odds for some piece of crap. They took in my old laptop for parts, but put the old hard-drive in a caddy for me, so it’s now being used as an external, and I keep all my data. I got money off my new laptop (apparently) for those parts though, which I was happy with, as the thing would only have been dumped on a shelf and forgotten about.
Anyway, I’ll make a proper post about the new laptop soon, as I’m not arsed putting it all in here, and it deserves a post of its own.
A pointless anecdote from this week :
There I am, on the bus. I put a bit of ‘Faith No More’ on my iPod, and start getting in the mood to listen to some heavy stuff. I think to myself, after this song I’ll stick on some ‘Children Of Bodom’. That’ll be grand.
I then look out the window and see some kid sitting at a bus stop, as emo as they come. Skinny jeans, stupid looking bright coloured shoes, proper emo fringe covering half his face. This annoyed me. I normally try to avoid judging by people’s clothes, but the whole emo thing on males just gets on my tits. I notice he’s wearing a band hoodie. Wonder what shitty band he’s sporting on his chest then?
I look down and he’s wearing a ‘Children Of Bodom’ hoodie. Bollocks.
Great guy/gal of this week :
The guy who made my lunch on Friday. On my way back from work there’s this shop that closes at 5pm, is pretty small, and generally looks like one of those cute, home-run shops. I get breakfast there the odd time, as they have hot deli food.
So about 4pm I head in after work, and it’s just the owner left working ( I do actually know it’s the owner), so they must not get much business around now. All the food girls are gone, and it looks like they’re closing down the deli.
“Am I too late to get a roll made, mate?” I say.
“Ah I’ll make you one up” He says, while looking around, making sure the place is empty.
There’s sausages, bacon, and pudding left over. Oh yes, I’ll have that. Haven’t had a breakfast roll in ages.
He clearly wasn’t comfortable doing this sort of thing, and while in the middle of making it, other people came in to the shop and had to wait, so he really was the only one left working. I expected a rushed, messy, crappy-ass roll, with stuff falling everywhere with every bite.
Oh how wrong I was.
It was fucking incredible. I don’t smoke but fuck me, I needed a cigarette after that roll.
Shop owner who made that roll <3
Product/Service I like this week :
Who knew you could order dominos pizza online? No more dealing with fools on the phone that speak no English and make you repeat your address and order again and again. Beautiful.
A quote :
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book
-Groucho Marx.
Thanks to Helena for that one.
And finally,
Favourite song this week :
Hibernation Statement - by The Redneck Manifesto.
One of my favourite bands, who are criminally underrated. They’re from Dublin, and have quite a few albums out, but these can be hard to find. The final one I got was found in a second hand cd shop, which I only went into while waiting for someone. I couldn’t believe my luck.
They’re yet another instrumental band, and I saw them live last December. They’re kind of “chill out” for me, but some songs can be quite heavy at times. The video for this song is brilliant too.
Enjoy.
I wanted to have this post published earlier, but alas, I have a hangover. Enough said.
Yesterday was a weird day. I have a tendency to notice silly things or overthink situations, so I’m not sure if this was just in overdrive yesterday, or it actually was an odd day.
Anyway, I was woken at 11.30am by an important phone call, and I’m fairly sure the caller knew I was just awake and barely aware of what was going on, so that wasn’t a good start. Breakfast, shower, and I’ll head into work, says I.
Just as I get to the bus stop for my first journey of the day, I see a bus driving off. Fuck it, says I, Mark Walsh runs for no bus. So I get the next one.
After my first bus, I have to get a second one to my place of work. While waiting for this, my laptop bag on me and my earphones in, looking utterly unapproachable, some nice old dear asks me for directions, then there’s that awkward smile by both parties where I realise she’s talking to me, and she realises I didn’t hear a word of whatever drivel she was spewing, and she has to repeat. I then tell her I have no idea about what she’s asking me, as it’s a wonder I manage to find my way to work every morning.
So then the bus comes, with no number displayed. I get on, and ask the driver “Number 18 I presume?” No answer. “Is this the 18 yeah?”, now I’m not a real stickler for politeness or manners (this may not be true, I probably am a stickler for politeness or manners) but he just continued to stare straight ahead and just sort of mumbled in an affirmative tone. What the fuck? Shit like that pisses me right off. If you’re gonna be useless with talking to people, then display the fucking bus number in the goddamn panel, that’s what it’s there for. A number of people then got on and asked the same question, much to my amusement.
So there I am, sitting down with my earphones in, and we get to a stop about half way along the bus route. A few people get on, and it’s all fine. Then one person comes and sits beside me. Sounds normal, but there was empty seats all over the fucking place, and I was sitting right in the middle of the seat, and then had to go to the strenuous effort of moving over for this guy. There was no (non-sexual) reason for him to choose to sit beside me instead of taking an empty seat. Fuck’s sake, now I have to do the whole polite “Sorry mate can I get by ya there?” when it’s at my stop. It was just weird and annoying.
So later on, after work, I decide to grab some food before hopping on a bus. Then as I’m about to pass by the bus stop, the bus I need is there. What do I do?
One look at the traffic told me another bus might not be around for a while, so I had to get on. On the bus, I saw someone who looked really like an old work colleague of mine. It definitely wasn’t him, but it just set me off remembering some of the stuff that guy had done/said during the time we worked together, he was hilarious. We then passed by the petrol station where I had planned to get some food, and I looked in and didn’t see a hot food section, so I made the right decision in getting that bus. Mark : 1, World : ~1,287.
I also saw a Tony Soprano lookalike, he had the large frame of Tony (James Gandolfini) but sadly the hearing aid he was sporting sort of lost him the cool mafioso factor.
Off that bus, walking toward the next. Shit, there’s one there now. I could run and catch it? Nah, Mark Walsh runs for no bus. It drives off and behind it there’s an even better bus (leaves me closer to home). Oh yes! My hatred of running for buses has paid off. Mark : 2, World ~1,287.
I get on, use my bus pass, and look around for a seat - right at the back, grand. Holy shit, was that - ? I looked and there sat the ex work colleague I had been thinking about on the previous bus. Bear in mind that I hadn’t seen this guy in about two years, and the one day I get reminded of him I see him on the bus. There was brief eye contact, and I could tell he recognised me (I just knew, alright!? ), but we were on a packed bus and both had earphones in, so we did the manly thing. We pretended we didn’t recognise each other.
At the back of the bus there was a girl in the corner and I was certain I knew her from somewhere. I then spent ages trying to think where I recognised her from. It was really cramped at the back, and I was sitting in a seat that faces the people in front of me. Where the hell do you look when you’re sitting there? I stretched out a leg to ease an oncoming cramp, then remembered I was wearing my battered old runners that I should have thrown out ages ago but they’re far too comfortable for me to do so. Fuck, retract the leg, retract the leg! You fool, Mark, don’t let the passengers see what a lowlife scumbag you are with your tattered shoes.
As passenger numbers dwindled, it was just me and that familiar girl at the back of the bus. Fuck it, it’s gonna annoy me unless I ask. Turns out I did know her from somewhere and we got chatting about all the general bullshit people do these days.
I’m certain there was many more interesting things that happened me yesterday, as I made the mental note to make this post, but alas, I’ve forgotten it all now.
As you can see, I’m very comfortable and normal in social situations.
I feel tired, Let’s all imagine I said something witty to introduce this one.
My abstract distraction this week is : The Football365 Forum
You’ll find this forum here. It’s a very busy forum, and despite the name, you don’t have to be a football fan to enjoy it (though it does help). It’s so busy that registration is closed most of the time, and it only opens up once every so often, and if you do try to register, you’ll need a work or university email address, not hotmail or gmail. Sounds a bit strict, but it’s necessary really. I managed to get an account last time, in July, and have racked up well over 200 posts at this stage, and I’m quite a casual poster on there! This is the only forum that frequently has me properly laughing at my screen when I’m browsing. Even the smileys (smilies?) on there are brilliant, and I actually want to steal them to use on this blog.
As a sample, here’s one of the funniest threads I’ve ever read, entitled “Your worst public fart” - Click here.
Great forum for passing time when you should be working.
Something that made me laugh this week :
This video is something I watch regularly, it just doesn’t get old for me. It’s particularly good for nerds or those who work in IT in any way, having to help people who don’t really know that much about what you’re doing for them. It’s just so so accurate.The official site for the video is here, but I’ve embedded a youtube video here for your convenience.
Curses on :
Actually being busy. I’ve been genuinely busy this week, and frankly it’s very odd. I like having lots of time to lounge around and waste my time. Bah, productivity!
I’m pleased with :
Having money. Granted, this relates a little bit to previous bit, in that I’ve been earning money, but relatives have also contributed to this, giving me money for my sheer luck efforts with the Leaving Cert. It’s fucking brilliant anyway.
Also I’ve tidied my room a bit, so my DVDs and CDs are now sorted well, and I’ve found most of my old concert tickets (I always try to keep them) and have them stuck on my wall. Beside me now I see tickets for Oxegen 2007, Kings of Leon (November 2007), Cat Power (May 2007), The Redneck Manifesto (December 2007), Delorentos (June 2008), Tool (November 2006), Presidents of the United States (April 2008) and Babyshambles (September 2006 - my first proper gig!). I even have some bus tickets, venue receipts and pit passes from some of those gigs. Sadly I seem to have lost the tickets for Dirty Pretty Things and Explosions in the Sky, which is annoying, because I met Carl Barat before the DPT one, and EITS are possibly my favourite ever band, and I’m not sure I’ll get to see them again. I think that’s all though.
A pointless anecdote from this week :
I was a good boy this week, I was. One day in particular stands out as me being a good citizen. When I go to my place of work, I have to get two buses in and two back home. So on my first bus of the day, there was an empty beer can rolling around annoying people. As everyone left they merely stepped over it, but when it came to my stop I decided to put an end to this wretched can’s bus journey, and took it off the bus and into a bin that was right at the bus stop. Sounds like nothing, but normally I just wouldn’t be arsed with this sort of thing, so it made feel like I was Mother Theresa or something. Then, on my way to my next bus, I get asked for directions, and actually bothered giving them, whereas usually I just claim ignorance because I’m shit at giving directions.
On my next bus, it was getting a bit packed, and then some pensioner’s day out crew came on, and I promptly stood up to allow those tired old bones to have my seat.
After work I was arriving at a bus stop, getting rained on, and tired. The bus stop is packed but some lovely old dear moved aside a bit to let me in under the shelter. I went to the strenuous effort of removing my earphones to thank her, and get this : I made a comment about the weather - to an old lady. This normally means they’re going to talk for a long time now, which stops me listening to my music. But I continued to smile and say things like “God, yeah” and laugh occasionally even though I didn’t really understand a fucking word of what the aul’ bag was saying.
On their own, these things aren’t much, but take them all together in the space of a few hours, and I’m an old lady’s dream.
Great guy/gal of this week :
That chap at the bar who, when asked for his order, pointed to me and said “I think that chap’s ahead of me”. There’s not many that do that any more.We then had a lovely chat.
That chap <3
Product/Service I like this week :
Bus passes. I used one for the first time in my life this week. Now I’m a regular user. They’re so handy. Not only do I save a lot of money on bus fares, but it saves the whole bother of trying to get the right change etc.
A quote :
This isn’t a small quote like usual, but a full poem, probably my favourite ever piece of poetry.
If
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And - which is more - you’ll be a Man, my son!
-Rudyard Kipling.
Great poem.
And finally,
Favourite song this week :
2 Rights Make 1 Wrong - by Mogwai.
Mogwai are a fantastic instrumental band, hailing from Scotland I believe. They’re similar to Explosions in the Sky, who I’ve mentioned above, and who also were my first ever song of the week on here. This is the first kind of song of this genre I ever heard, and I loved it straight away. This song led on getting more of Mogwai’s stuff, which then led to Explosions in the Sky. Very relaxing song.
Enjoy.
That’s it for this week. This post was a bit late too, my laptop shut down half way through typing the post up, so I had to get have some breakfast to avoid smashing it against the wall.
You wake up and it’s all numb and weird? I’m getting that all the freakin’ time lately.
How do you manage to fall asleep on your arm like that in the first place?
It’s really strange when you wake up and you’re all dazed and confused, and don’t know what’s going on, and have to try fix your arm which feels completely seperate to your body and totally out of control.
One night I woke up and I had a particularly bad case of this, on my left arm. I used my other hand to raise the arm up and try get the circulation going. What happened next is something I’m glad nobody else saw.
I picked up the numb arm, and it was completely out of my control and heavier than I’d expected, in my dazed state. It escaped my gripped and flopped into my face, hitting me square on the nose. Even though nobody else could have seen this, I actually felt embarrassed, as it must have looked utterly ridiculous. Try imagine doing that. I actually laughed at the time, after I’d overcome the initial surprise of smacking myself in the face.
Another time I fell asleep on my arm and made it numb, and this intergrated into my dream. In the dream we were about to sit down to dinner (I have some wild dreams!) and I just couldn’t feel comfortable. My family were asking me what was wrong, I tell them “my circulation’s not right, something’s wrong”. So to remedy this I proceeded to jog around the dinner table, trying to get the blood flowing again. Alas, it didn’t work, and I woke up and realised I’d been sleeping on my arm the whole time and had to pick it up and hold it up and feel the blood trickle back into normal flow.
I’m not sure if I like this thing. It’s annoying to get woken at night, but it’s also quite a strange sensation and pretty cool to feel the blood trickling back into normal circulation.
Please tell me I’m not the only one who gets this?
Firstly, if you didn’t read the Sunday post yesterday, go read it now, I didn’t write all that crap for nothing.
Offers for college just came out, and thankfully, I’ve managed to get my first choice, Business, Economics and Social Studies (BESS) in Trinity. Let’s take a look at what I said about Trinity and BESS a few months ago, shall we? Click here.
Trinners for winners, BESS for the best! (I’d like to thank Ciarán for that little saying, I’m sure I’ll fit in really well using it).
The course requirements went down by ten points this year, at 470, so with my 510 I comfortably got in, with 40 points to spare. Yeow!
That course has a bit of a reputation for the whole “D4″ thing, but that’s bollocks to me. Great course in Ireland’s most recognised college, I’m happy! Also, D4 girls are loike sooo hawwwt (I’m never going to try doing that again).
I hope everyone is happy with their college offers, let me know what you’re doing! I’d particularly like to hear from any fellow Trinity-goers, or any other future/current/past BESS heads. Fancy a pint in the Pav?
What happens from here? Grants and books etc? Feckin’ effort. Exams? Study? Pressure?
My acoustic bass guitar. I have an electric bass and electric guitar, both of which I mess around on quite often. Then the other day my dad went up to the attic for something (I can’t remember what, it was the early afternoon on a Summer’s day so I was probably blind drunk). I decide to stroll up the ladder and have a look around. Stepping over a number of trinkets and corpses, there is it. The acoustic bass I bought about a year ago and had to put up there because it was massive and took up too much room. I brought it down for sheer novelty, and my fingers are now suitably wrecked. This is a picture of her anyway :
Something that made me laugh this week :
This guy on eBay. He leaves some of the funniest feedback I’ve ever read.
He’s really hilarious, here’s some sample of feedback he’s left for random items. We don’t know what he actually bought, which makes it all even funnier.
“the leg braces work GREAT—I wear then to work so no one has the guts to fire me”
“NICE tombstone—will kill myself after work so I can start using it immediatey.A+”
“LOVE the bar of soap—being from France, I may need to buy another in a year or 2″
“Dispite the seller’s blatant violation of child exploitaion & labor laws—A+++”
“as promised—my stools are large, firm, and have no more odor that a warm biscuit”
“this thing is GREAT—whoever knew they even made such a thing as a fart amplifier”
I’m surprised he hasn’t been banned or warned by eBay for such hilarities, but fair play to him anyway.
Curses on :
Kings Of Leon tickets selling out ridiculously early. Even more frustrating for me was that I knew the presale password, meaning I could have gotten tickets on the Thursday, a day before they went on public sale. I procrastinated and left it too late, and by the time I went to buy them, they only has seated tickets left. Fuck that I says. I decided to get up the following morning and buy ‘em online, shouldn’t be hassle, I’ve done it many times for gigs that have then sold out quickly. The next day I’m ready and waiting at 8.59. The time turns to 9.00, I refresh ticketmaster and go to buy tickets.
“We could not process your request”.
Eh? Better try again.
“We could not process your request”
Another fifteen minutes of this followed, with me entering all kinds of quantities and variations of seating/standing tickets. Nothing! The gig isn’t until December so I’m confident enough that I’ll find a ticket somehow before then, but it’s very irritating.
I blame those o2 shower of bastards. This has only increased my rage about o2 customers getting priority for tickets (all o2 customers were texted about them being able to get tickets on the Wednesday - two days before public sale). Does everything really have to be about marketing and sales? I’m shocked that thing went through in the first place to be honest. Is there anything that could be done about it? I imagine a petition or something would probably just be laughed at?
I heard about people queuing up overnight for those Kings Of Leon tickets, only for the outlets to have ten in stock. Ten! Absolutely ridiculous. With a max limit of four tickets per person, that probably means 3 people that were in line actually got tickets. Imagine being that fourth guy.
I hate things like music, art, and cultural things being made into a money making racket, and while I can accept that it’s necessary to an extent (charging for CDs, concerts etc - though they’re greatly overpriced, but that’s a different story), I just think this is too far. Even if I’m willing to pay your extortionate ticket prices, and get up early to get a ticket for one of my favourite bands, I now have to change phone network to guarantee seeing them? What the fuck does my phone network have to do with the band? Or music? Or fucking anything aside from my mobile phone? Bollocks.
I’m pleased with :
It’s gotta be the Leaving Cert results, hasn’t it? Months of stress, worry, pressure and guilty procrastination came to an end on Wednesday. The relief of having it all over with is orgasmic. Offers for college come tomorrow, so not long for me to wait to see if I got my top choice.
A lot of people I was talking to did very well, I’ve spoken to a good few 600 points people, which is an incredible achievement. About 5,000 people failed maths apparently, which is pretty harsh, as passing maths is required for most college courses.
You can apply to view your exam scripts, which is free, so I’ve applied to view them all, purely out of curiosity. I’ll never get the chance again, so why not? I doubt I’ll have anything rechecked (regraded at a cost of €37) but it’ll be interesting to see what mistakes I made on the day. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing my English essay, which wasn’t just some learned off tripe, but something I came up with on the day (okay I pulled a few quotes from previous essays, but only the really hilarious ones!), and considering that was my only A1 subject I’m dying to read it, as I had thought it may have been a bit shit.
A pointless anecdote from this week :
Thursday evening, around 7pm, and I’m getting a bus home from being out on Wednesday night. It was one of those hungover public appearances as mentioned here. I smelled of a strange mix of aftershave and beer, I was tired, my voice was gone, my throat was killing me, and I couldn’t even cough properly, it was more of a pathetic little wheeze that slipped out every so often. Typically, the bus was packed. I’m left standing, right at the front. So I’m the last guy people have to push past on their way out.
Now I’m no bus expert (gasp!) but from what I know, the little red stop buttons on Dublin Bus are to be pressed when you want the driver to stop at the next bus stop. So I was standing there trying to look alert, and as the bus approached a bus stop, it pulls in and one man starts gathering his things. The bus had come to a halt, and he then looks at the door, which is about to open, and presses and holds the button until the doors open. I think I was the only one who saw this strange behaviour. Did this man think the doors would stay closed unless he pressed that button? Or perhaps he was right and I’ve been an awfully ignorant commuter my whole life.
He then got off the bus, and as it drove by him I saw him trying to light up a cigarette the wrong way - as in, he had the end of it in his mouth, and the orange tip thing on the other end held at the lighter. Again, I don’t think anyone else saw this (Why would they bother looking sure?) which made it funnier for me. Oh I had a wry little smile on my face right then I tell you.
Great guy/gal of this week :
Whoever corrected my History Leaving Cert exam. Seriously man/bitch, were you on drugs?
Product/Service I like this week :
Podcasting. What did I do before I downloaded podcasts? I particularly enjoy the Russell Brand one, the boards.ie one, and a bit of Ricky Gervais. They’re a great way to pass some time, and when they’re completely free, why the hell not?
A quote :
“The difference between insanity and genius is measured only by success“
-Bruce Feirstein.
Dunno who the chap is, but a nice quote there.
And finally,
Favourite song this week :
Lost Someone - by Cat Power.
Cat Power (real name Chan Marshall) is my favourite female in the history of the world. She started off in music singing and playing guitar herself but now has a big band behind her more often. She has a good few albums out, and I’ve managed to see her live before. I find her particularly gorgeous, though this may be influenced by the fact that her voice is pure unadulterated sex. Seriously, I would marry her for that voice. The way she acts on stage is brilliant too. She does this weird dancing, nothing mental, just not something I’ve seen anyone else do, eccentric. The song I’ve picked her probably isn’t my favourite by her, but it’s a good quality live video, and there weren’t any better ones I could find. She’s very easy on the ear anyway. Enjoy.
Go listen, but beware of severe arousal.
It’s worth noting that Cat Power is the only artist I’ve blared in my room that my mother has said was “lovely”. This happened on two occasions, both when I was playing Cat Power. Quite an achievement, no?
That’s it for this week anyway, sorry the post came a bit late, I forgot about it until really late last night, and was late getting up today of course.
Just home from collecting my Leaving Cert results, and I’m feeling good!
I did better than expected. My hands were shaking when I was opening the envelope, and I was shaking even more when i saw my results! Without further ado, here they are.
Irish - Higher Level - B3
English - Higher Level - A1 (boo yeah!)
Maths - Higher Level - C3
History - Higher Level - A2
Geography - Higher Level - A2
French - Higher Level - B1
Physics - Higher Level - C1
Total Points : 510 (from a possible 600)
Oh hell yeah! Anything over 500 is considered a huge achievement, so I’m absolutely delighted. Last year the points for my course were 480, so it looks promising, but nothing is guaranteed.
I’m still in shock, I really didn’t expect to do so well.
I had my photo taken for the local newspaper too, so I may well be in that next week.
Any other leaving certers reading, let me know how you got on!
This shouldn’t have taken so long, but Kings Of Leon have announced a Dublin gig, after announcing a shit load in Britain a while back.
Here’s the information : Following their triumphant headline appearance at Oxegen this year, KINGS OF LEON have announced two concert dates in The O2, Dublin on Saturday 19 December 2008 and The Odyssey, Belfast on Sunday 20 December 2008. Tickets for both shows go on sale this Friday at 9am. (from Ticketmaster)
An early Christmas present for me!
But because o2 are wankers, their customers will have priority, and can order tickets tomorrow, here’s the instructions on how, copied from an internet forum (excuse the txtspk, I’m wrecked and not arsed fixing it up) :
Ok the deal is, u have to be an o2 customer. if you are you can go onto www.o2blueroom.ie at 9am on Wed to get tickets but to do so u must have a password which u get by sending the word KING to 51020. When u send txt O2 will confirm u are an o2 customer then u will get password to be used on www.o2blueroom.ie website to buy tickets (it’ll redirect u to ticketmaster.ie).
This does not guarantee u will get tickets!!
Passwords will be sent ONLY ONCE to any number so if u get one DO NOT LOSE IT!!!
Thats all the info I got from a lovely girl on o2 helpline.
Hope it helps!
Also this will not mean all tickets will be sold out as they are only allocated a certain number so dont panic if u have to wait til thurs.
Any of you smug little o2 cocksuckers want to get me a password?
Hopefully I’ll manage to get tickets anyway. There’s a shitload of gigs I need to buy tickets for, why is it always either a feast or a famine?
Edit : Forgot to mention that tomorrow is Leaving Cert results day.
The second ever Sunday round-up is finally upon us. A post that has been eagerly awaited by all.
My abstract distraction this week is :
Not quite an abstract distraction, but I love that title so much, so I’ll take liberties there and you’ll like it. Wireless Headphones. All this week I’ve been walking around the house with these wireless headphones on (stolen from a family member). I don’t know what I did before I started using these things. Making a sandwich downstairs in the kitchen with them on, listening to music being played from my laptop, even hearing email notification alerts - I love it. It’s really handy for things like podcasts, you can walk all around your room/house still listening, no wires pissing you off. Invest in a set of these.
Something that made me laugh this week :
There was a thread on boards.ie about things you’ve overheard from Dubliners. This post was by a user named “WindSock” and I found it pretty funny :
” 2 skangers male and female walk into a chipper and the man says;-
‘wha’ r ye havin’?
-’a snack box’
‘yer not havin a snack box’
-’i fookin am’
‘yer noh, now wha are ye havin?
-’Get me a bleedin snack box or yer not gettin yer hoel tonigh.
The man turns around to the person behind the counter:
‘Two snack boxes, ple-ase’ “
Curses on :
The fucking weather. I type this on a Saturday night and I actually don’t think I can remember seeing weather this bad here. My local village has been closed off, and apparently a pub (not sure which one, 95% of buildings down there are pubs) has been washed out. There’s floods all over the city. Even my own back garden is totally waterlogged, I’ve never seen that happen before. I wanted to take a picture but the camera isn’t around right now, if I find it I’ll edit this and post the pic.
And what the hell is with the Twitter links on the side of my blog? If you hover over them you’ll notice they spasm when you get near them. Awh, nervous little things!
I’m pleased with :
Things developing financially. I’ve got a new ebook all written and nearly ready for launch, and I’ve gotten a job involving some IT work that looks very promising.
Also, a while back, a friend and I were in Club Twenty One (beware that website - there’s music on autoplay), rather inebriated, and purchased some “VIP Passes” for €25, which at the time seemed like a great idea. There was only a limited number of them for sale. This week we went to the place again, and it turns out the passes weren’t a complete waste of money! Instead of joining the plebians in the queue, I walk up to the entrance, show my pass, get in immediately, for free. I think it’s safe to say I’ve found my new favourite club.
A pointless anecdote from this week :
I was coming back from the shop, and as usual, was listening to my ipod, in a futile attempt to drown out the screams of glee from the parade of women following me. A man was walking in my direction, a complete stranger to me. As he approached, I raised my hand to adjust my earphones. However, as I raised my hand I saw the man’s face form an expression of surprise before hurriedly saying hello to me. I found it strange for a moment before I realised he’d obviously thought I was about to wave/acknowledge him, when I was simply fixing the earphones. Oh, what a hilarious misunderstanding.
Great guy/gal of this week :
Russell Brand. My love for Russell Brand knows no bounds.
This guy is quite a controversial character. A former drug addict, fired from MTV a few years back, his well documented sexual exploits, extremely witty, and most importantly, what a vocabulary he has! He was fired from MTV on September 12th, 2001, after coming to work in an outfit which he has said “can only be described as Osama Bin Laden-esque.” Whatever you think about that stunt, it required some testicular fortitude to go through with it.
He’s won “Shagger of the Year” (an award given by a tabloid newspaper) for the past two years. That’s not an award I’d associate with someone who talks in such a Dickensian manner really. Not to mention his crazy hair.
I download his podcast every week, which is something I always look forward to, particularly the “Nanecdotes” which are stories people send in about their grandmothers (don’t say you don’t like that pun!)
He does presenting, stand up comedy, and is also a decent actor, and apparently has more films in the works after starring in “Forgetting Sarah Marshal”. His book is meant to be good too, I’m hoping to buy it soon.
I’ve bought the domain russellbrand.info, which I may develop soon, purely out of love.
Russ <3
Product/Service I like this week :
DesignByHumans. A friend showed me this site, where you can sign up and design a t-shirt for others to buy (I’m sure there’s some sort of voting/selection process to decide what shirts get printed), or of course buy some yourself. There was a sale on for the next few hours when I was shown the site. And, it’s free delivery when you spend over $70. And, we knew a 10% discount code. So me and my friend split an order, spending $78, which was really $70.2 with our discount - perfect, we’d get free delivery. I got two shirts, shown below, which cost me a combined total of $26, around €17, which is a great price. Here they are for you to marvel at :
What d’ya reckon?
A quote :
“I have a very bad relationship with the future. We don’t get on. We just ignore each other.“
-Peter Doherty.
Did anyone really think I’d leave my Petey out of here?
And finally,
Favourite song this week :
Skinny Love - by Bon Iver.
This guy’s damn cool. He recorded his album himself in a wooden cabin in the middle of winter, and what a great album it is. The video below is a live version of this song, on Jools Holland - a great performance. A thanks to Joseph for showing me this guy. Enjoy.
That’s it for this week. There hasn’t been much news (that I can think of) for me to discuss so it hasn’t been about anything very current. Any ideas or suggestions are most welcome, do leave a comment please.
Basically, I got to school in the morning to collect my exam results. We were then grouped into our classes for the Junior Cert (three years ago), but of course, because it was a dream, I thought nothing of this. So there were people around me that left school years ago.
Then my third year class tutor starts calling the registration and everyone goes up to collect their results after their name is called. Finally, he gets close to the end and I start getting very nervous (with the surname Walsh I’m always at the end). Then he calls the second last name but gives away the last envelope and starts walking out, and says “Good luck”.
I panic and shout “Sir, I didn’t get one!”
“What?”
“I never got my results!”
And then there was a frantic search to find my results, and I woke up before we ever did.
