Archive for the 'Life etc.' Category
posted by Mark posted on 11th, 2008 at 09:26 pm
Getting a bit repetitive eh?
Just a quick update before I turn in to grind out another blissful Monday morning.
Firstly, a thanks to Scoby, for keeping his word. He set himself a challenge of earning $200 online in the month of April, and if he failed, one person who’d commented his blog would win $20. Sadly (for him anyway) he failed. With my good luck lately, was there any doubt that I’d win the fecking thing? So cheers to Declan for that, would have been easy for him to lie and save himself $20.
I’ve been keeping an eye on my backlinks lately, and noticed another new one in there two days ago. I was led to this post. The author had seen a piece of mine in the Irish Times, and referred to me as an eloquent blogger. So, having looked around his blog for quite a while, I grew to really enjoy his writing, so I was pretty glad to have received a link and some approval from this guy, known on there only as Primal Sneeze. I had a look at the links in his sidebar, and found some really great Irish blogs that I’d never seen before. My own blog used to revolve around my online money making, and while I plan to get back into that after my exams, I probably prefer my more general posting or ranting. I read very few “Make Money Online” type blogs these days, and the links I found from Primal Sneeze will certainly be filling that void. This one in particular caught my attention. A columnist with the Times, her standard of writing is just excellent. Being a fairly confident writer myself, it’s rare I’ll be humbled by the quality of someone else’s writing, particularly on a blog, but this one did just that. I’ll stop my ass kissing now.
Any nerds reading this will probably relate to this next part. On Friday I signed up for a RapidShare account for one month, at a cost of €7. Basically this opens up a whole new galaxy of downloading at good speeds.
I can honestly say I have no idea what I’d been doing with my life for those miserable, wasteful 18 years before I bought a RapidShare account. This must be how people felt when they discovered the wheel, or fire.
Oh, congrats to the Man Utd fans out there, you deserved it.
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posted by Mark posted on 7th, 2008 at 02:12 pm
The past three days have been decent for me on all fronts.
Firstly, I had Monday and Tuesday off school, and just a half day today. The weather has been fantastic, which is really a rarity for Ireland, and I’ve been enjoying it by trying to do my study out in the back garden while soaking up some rays. My celtic skin can only burn however, never tan.
Yesterday I was mentioned in the Irish Times (no tabloid junk, thank you very much!) for the second time in two weeks, so I’m certainly not complaining there. They actually took a snippet (the first paragraph) of this post and left my name and website address. Funnily enough, yesterday evening while walking, enjoying the beautiful weather, I actually saw one of the teachers I was referring to in that post. I smiled and said hello and quickly walked on hoping she didn’t know I had made reference to her in a national newspaper that day.
Then today, I logged in to make this post, and noticed some strange backlinks to this blog. I investigated and noticed that Retire At 21 (a website that’s quite well known in the world of online money making) had included me in their list of the top 30 bloggers under the age of 21! This was complete with a link to my blog. Several others made a post about the list, so I’ve been getting a few links around the place and not even realising! Here’s the full post, read it and be happy for me.
I must admit I was very proud to have made the list (albeit at number 30!), especially considering I haven’t been working online much of late. While I may currently not be earning as much online as the others, my alexa rank and technorati rank aren’t bad at all (I hadn’t realised my site stats had improved so much), and I’m still younger than a good few of the people who are higher up than me. So little old walsho.net is holding it’s own. 
And a huge thanks to Michael for considering me for the list, it really made my day!
While we’re on the online side of things, those lovable sods down at Google have decided to pick me back up from the gutter and give me back my PageRank. The site is once again a Google PageRank 2. Google you old softies!
Also, yesterday I bought some revision books for my exams, and realised later I’d been overcharged. Today I went in and as soon as she saw me, the girl apologised and took out a little bundle she’d put by for me with my money in it. Didn’t even have to ask!
So, a nice few days. I can only hope now that this continues until the end of my Leaving Cert, which is only four weeks away.
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posted by Mark posted on 25th, 2008 at 07:09 pm
Lately I’ve been mentioning that this site might have been getting a little exposure over the next while.
Fortunately, that came to pass last Tuesday.
A journalist from the Irish Times (Ireland’s best paper, none of that tabloid rubbish!) contacted me around the start of April, and got me to review a couple of Leaving Cert websites. It was this very website that enabled her to find and contact me.
Last Tuesday, April 22nd, my work appeared in the paper along with some pieces from Aaron Donohoe, or Madringo as some may know him, and the crew at Leaving-Cert. Congrats to them too
It was nice seeing my name in print in that paper, along with a mention of this blog. That small link to this site even got me a few extra hits that day, so I was definitely happy to have done it (The link given was actually Walsho.com, but thankfully I had that domain already, and made it redirect to here, Walsho.net). I was also happy to give theleavingcert.com a mention in it, as that’s owned by Smemon, an online friend of mine. You’re welcome man! 
So, a thanks to Gráinne Faller from the Irish Times for giving me the chance to help out, and also my English teacher, who was delighted with the appearance and even made an announcement to the class about it!
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posted by Mark posted on 22nd, 2008 at 12:38 am
Was flicking through the newspaper the other day and had a startling observation.
As we all know, Brian Cowen is going to be the new Taoiseach of Ireland, after Bertie’s resignation. While Brian seems great for the job and all, we should really be asking ourselves - Do we really want one of the world’s most unphotogenic men as our leader?
As I flicked through the paper I noticed that sadly the camera doesn’t do Mr. Cowen any favours. (I apologise for the low quality of some of the photos!)
Firstly, what’s supposed to be a display of affection with his wife, well it just doesn’t turn out too well, and gives the impression Brian’s been eating a little too much garlic before his press conference.
Next we have Brian’s suberb imitation of his goldfish.
And what have we here? Our new Taoiseach’s feeling saucy! Check out Brian’s seductive lip licking.
Oh Brian, just ravish me!
And as for these final ones, I just don’t know what to say. A picture speaks a thousand words, enjoy!
Has anyone else noticed how in general the daughters of famous people are nearly always rather attractive? I asssure any fellow adolescent males reading this that Mr. Cowen’s daughter is no exception. I shan’t post a picture of her however, as that’d just be too weird. You’ll usually catch a glimpse of her in the papers next to her father anyway. (Sinead Cowen : Call me!)
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posted by Mark posted on 19th, 2008 at 06:45 pm
Been a while since I’ve posted on here.
After the success of my French oral last week, I had my Irish one to worry about on Monday. It wasn’t quite as good as the French one, but it went fine really, the examiner was a little awkward though.
Today I was in Trinity College for a maths revision course (as I was last Saturday also). Pretty tiring, but it was pretty useful in the end, since we basically revised the entire higher level maths course over two weekends. And during lunch today I walked into the wrong shop (the one beside the shop I thought I was heading for), and for fear of looking like an idiot by walking back out immediately, I look around. Thankfully I was surrounded by dvd’s and cd’s, not some weird sex toys or something. Then I glance at the top shelf and see a Redneck Manifesto cd I’d been wanting for ages but hadn’t been able to locate. Second-hand. €10 . Fuck yes.
We also saw Dave McSavage around town, doing his little thing. While admittely I did laugh at some of the stuff he was at, I really just wanted him to shut the fuck up and get off the streets. You can tell his material is just the same stuff over and over, and he’s just irritating. I can’t quite explain it. It’s like he thinks he’s far funnier than he really is. When it comes down to it, there’s a reason why he’s selling his dvds out of a bag on the street rather than in shops. Personally I despise the whole “PC brigade” type of thing these days, but he was pretty insulting to some people, and usually I’d be pretty easy-going with that sort of thing. Moral of the story? Dave McSavage : Shut up man, you’re not that good.
On the website side of things, this blog finally reached 40 RSS subscribers. Finally! You bastards had me peaked at 39 for ages. The number tends to fluctuate, but had hit 40 a few times now, so I thank all my subscribers, and apologise for calling you bastards in the previous sentence.
Tune in on Tuesday when I’m hoping to get a decent post (or two) up here, hopefully to coincide with some exposure the site might be getting. More on that to come my friends!
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posted by Mark posted on 2nd, 2008 at 02:36 pm
Only the Irish readers will care about this one, but if you haven’t heard already, Bertie Ahern announced today that he’ll be handing in his resignation as Taoiseach on 6th May. It’s a pretty interesting case really. Bertie’s been Taoiseach for nearly 11 years, and was liked by the public for seeming like a pretty down-to-earth kinda guy. He should be remembered for his work on the Peace Process with Northern Ireland and the “Celtic Tiger” economy that grew under his leadership. Lately there has been a tribunal though into some of his finances during his time in office, with some suspicious large sums of money under question.
With this tribunal going on I don’t think too many people would have been surprised to hear of his resignation.
Personally I liked Bertie Ahern. I’m not too into politics but he seemed decent enough, and I once met him him a local shopping centre when I was way younger (I’d say nine or ten years of age) and he was very polite, even to me, a young child at the time, despite the fact that he was surrounded by a ton of people trying to talk to him. I asked him “What’s it like being known everywhere you go?” I basically just wanted to ask him something for the sake of talking to the Taoiseach. He answered that it had some advantages and disadvantages, but then some middle-aged bitch interrupted with “I’m a teacher and I’m very upset” and I decided it was time to leave the man alone, I’d gotten my wee chat with him, I was happy.
Whether he took brown envelopes or not, I liked him, and he seemed to be doing a decent enough job. What’s so bad about brown envelopes anyway?
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posted by Mark posted on 1st, 2008 at 11:30 pm
As I write this post, I have been officially 18 years of age for the past eleven minutes. How wonderful.
Finally, I can attend clubs and pubs without having to borrow an ID off someone that looks like me. Finally I can go buy beer without having to worry about getting asked for ID and having to shamefully admit that I don’t have it, and then face the horrible walk of shame. My mate Warren always had the hilarious idea of heading into an off-licence on the day of your 18th birthday, wearing only a nappie (diaper), baseball cap, and holding a giant lollipop. And you can proudly produce that identification card that proves you can purchase alcohol despite you wearing the attire of a two year old.
Unfortunately, I’ll never again get to experience the thrill of getting served alcohol or getting into an over-18s club when technically you’re not supposed to. Perhaps that was even the best part?
Posts like this really show my Irish-ness don’t they?
For my birthday I’m getting mostly money, because quite simply, I need it! I’ve had to buy a new laptop though, as over the weekend I broke my old one. I’ll post about this in detail soon, I hope!
The laptop partly explains the lack of posting on here lately, but mainly it’s due to exams. I have Leaving Cert oral exams coming up on the 7th (French) and the 14th (Irish). Two orals exams in such close proximity is quite unfair in my opinion, as it’s so easy to mix up both languages. Today I had a practice French oral, which went quite swimmingly! My teacher was hard enough on me too, allowing me very little chance to talk about the basics or stuff I had learned off, but instead challenged me by asking about the economy and stuff like that. She was very pleased overall, so perhaps sacrificing my blogging time has paid off a little!
Because of the afore-mentioned exams, I wont be doing anything for my birthday. I’m not happy about this, but when it’s sacrificing two weekends for the sake of my Leaving Cert oral exams, I think it’s a wise decision. A nerdy decision, but a wise one.
June 16th is the day I finish my Leaving Cert folks, and I promise you walsho.net will be back with regular posting from then on!
In the meantime, feel free to get me to buy your under-age friends, relatives, or general acquaintances alcohol or cigarettes. Why? Because I can. And it makes me feel like a big man.
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posted by Mark posted on 15th, 2008 at 01:26 am
Howdy, I know I’m a bit late with this one!
Hope everyone had a good Valentine’s Day. I myself, being a young single playa’, did nothing but stay in alone with a bottle of wine, Ben and Jerry’s, and watched The Notebook on dvd study today, so there isn’t anything interesting to report!
I was wondering today about how this Valentine’s day business came about. Is it true that the card companies just completely invented it one year? If so, I’d be hugely impressed. That’d be some clever business. Imagine creating a day celebrated nearly worldwide simply to increase sales during a barren period.
Though the effect of that is generally that us men have to go out buying stupid cards and spending ridiculous money on romantic crap for a made up day.
This week has been dominated by study really, and I still have so much to get through. I’ve been thinking about just putting this blog on hold until after my leaving cert exams (in May). Though this may seem a bit drastic, it could prove very beneficial. I know in my heart I probably won’t do this, but it’s an option. Any recommendations? I’ve noticed a friend of mine is thinking somewhat along the same lines (personally I’d be very disappointed if he stopped blogging, don’t do it Monty!).
Lately I’ve also been considering just unsubscribing to all RSS feeds I’m currently subscribed to. The only reason I subscribe to blogs is for contests or to do the owner a favour, as I much prefer logging onto the site and seeing the full posts and comment. Subscribing by RSS sometimes doesn’t show images or videos in the posts, and for this reason I never really took to it. (This does not count for my RSS feed, which is completely amazing so please subscribe). I have a “Blogs” bookmark folder in Firefox anyway, so I click that and all my favourite blogs open up for me to read.
Something related that’s been grinding my gears lately is the RSS feed on Jim Karter’s blog. Now Jim’s a smart guy, making a lot of money online (earned over $47 last month), but I’ve subscribed to his RSS by email, and in the emails I only get half of each posting, and have to click a link to see the rest. Surely this is defeating the supposed purpose of the whole RSS feed idea? Perhaps this is accidental though.
This has been a rambling post, but it’s better than nothing at this period when I’m devoting most of my spare time to studying!
I’ve a post coming later about beginning affiliate marketing, so if you’re a reader for the business side of things, stick around and check that out.
I’m off to grab another beer study some more anyway, later!
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posted by Mark posted on 11th, 2008 at 07:43 pm
The FAI have finally done what they have failed to do for far too long, and employed a decent, respected manager, and made Giovanni Trapattoni the new boss. In all honesty my interest in football isn’t what it used to be, but I know the FAI and our national football team in general have been piss poor, and this guy managed Juventus back in the day (the team I supported as a youngster). He hasn’t been as successful of late as he was in previous decades, but I’m sure he’ll be a bit better than Steve Staunton!
Officially this hasn’t been confirmed, but is about 95% at the moment, so whynot blog about it and get in the google ranks nice and early?
If you’ve not seen Trapattoni before, check out this vid of him going on a bit of a mad one. Let’s hope he doesn’t disappoint.
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posted by Mark posted on 9th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Yesterday we had our dress up day in school, (for us sixth years, our last ever one!) and it didn’t disappoint. Generally most people actually make some sort of effort, and that includes the teachers, with the exception of the principal and vice-prinicipal, which I can understand. I didn’t tell many people what I was gonna dress up as, because with my outfit, the element of surprise was pretty important.
I got a loan of a big teletubbie outfit off someone, and it went down really well. Most people got a bit of a shock seeing me for the first time in it, and it was usually followed by laughter or in some cases, “aww, gimme a hug” as apparently the outfit it very “huggable”. Walking to school and back was pretty weird that day, and there was absolutely no way I could blend in, so had to just take it and wave at anyone looking at me funnily. One hilarious moment was when I was walking along and got beeped from a car across the road, I looked over and saw a whole family waving at me enthusiastically.
Two other guys in school dressed as ‘Bananas in Pyjamas’, who had their own children’s show back in the day. Not everyone understood my joke when I started pretending to fight them, but thankfully they seemed to understand and played along.
My mate was dressed as a Guard, and had the full outfit, so looked really authentic. We wanted to do a prank after school where we’d go to the village and he starts chasing me through the streets. Unfortunately he had to leave school early so we couldn’t do it, but imagine how people would have reacted seeing a guard chasing a giant teletubbie through the streets.
Inevitably I had a lot of people taking pictures of me or with me, but so far only a couple have been uploaded to bebo for me to steal.
Here’s one of me and one of the lads, but I’ll be getting more up here soon, promise!
 Don’t I look hot? A bit of a TILF perhaps?
The aerial thing on top of the head wouldn’t stay up right, but this provided me with ammunition for some jokes about me being an impotent teletubbie, so it was all good.
Overall it was damn fun day, and a good way to finish school before the mid-term. I now have a week off, but unfortunately my mock exams are starting as soon as I go back, so it should be a week dedicated to study.
There was also a battle of the bands in my school on Thursday night. I’m mates with a couple of the people playing in it, so beforehand I went into Dunnes Stores and asked the first worker I saw where I could find “the cheapest, funniest pairs of women’s underwear”. She started bringing me to their lingerie section and didn’t seem to cop it was for a joke, as she asked me what size I needed them in. I responded that it really didn’t matter. So during the gig, a pair of frilly leopard skin knickers (or two actually) got thrown onto the stage, which caused a good few laughs and a lot of confusion. I urge any of you to purchase some women’s underwear for this purpose next time you’re going to a gig, it was possibly the best €6 I ever spent.
Anyway, I’ve gotta try get a camera charger or else a spare camera off someone for this evening, as the family’s relying on me to provide photography for my sister’s 21st birthday party tonight. Talk soon!
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