Sunday Round-Up #11

Nothing to see here…

My abstract distraction this week is :

Gigs. Bon Iver on Tuesday (see previous blog post) and I’ve going to see This Will Destroy You tonight. I’ve another two gigs to attend over the next month too.

Concerts are just brilliant. The anticipation while watching all the equipment being set up and then finally seeing your favourite artists in the flesh, doing what they do best.

Lately, with me being a broke college student, I’ve gotten into the habit of not drinking at concerts, and it’s not so bad actually.

Something that made me laugh this week :

In town the other night, waiting for a nitelink. I had just gone and bought credit, and had spent more money that night than I’d intended. A homeless guy came up to me as I was leaving the shop, and started talking to me. When you’re in the city often, you begin to desensitise to homeless people and their asking for spare change, though I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a bit of a sucker for those less fortunate.

This guy says to me : "Sorry to bother you mate, I’m completely harmless, I’m not a criminal and I don’t abuse drugs. I haven’t drank in 8 years. I’m desperately trying to get 18 euro together for a hostel, would you have any spare change?"

I couldn’t say no after something like this. He really made a good pitch!

Even though I knew there was every chance it was complete bullshit and he was off to buy a naggin of vodka as soon as he got the money, he seemed genuine and one thing was for sure - he was far worse off than me. Here’s me thinking I’m broke because I have to stay in the odd night instead of going to a club, and going to college during the week, while this guy is walking the streets trying to scrape some change together for food or somewhere to stay. I gave him the change I had in my wallet, and said "Sorry it’s so little, the only change I have".

He shrugged and said : "Better than a kick in the balls mate. Thanks." and walked off.

I did a genuine laugh when he said that, and was glad I gave him money.

Curses on :

Motherfucking Eircom. The main phone company in Ireland, and my internet provider.

Something’s wrong with the internet in my area. Certain sites are being blocked by Eircom while they’re fucking around with something, and it’s very irritating. Yesterday I noticed none of my sites on my server were working. So I asked a friend to check if they loaded for him. They did.

He then told me that a load of sites hadn’t been working for him the day before, and it’s something to do with Eircom. This guy is my main computer nerd advice person, so I suspect he’s right. I then tried my sites using a proxy server, and they worked fine.

Right now I have to do this post through a proxy, which is just a pain in the hole.

I’m pleased with :

Learning to save my money a little better.

I’ve begun to learn when to take it easy and stay in for the night. And as I mentioned above, learned not to drink (much) at gigs etc where there’s actually something to do aside from getting drunk.

The best thing is saving money on food. Being in college during the day, you get hungry obviously. This is when people go and buy food. But I have discovered a brilliant money-saver.

Just starve!

Even the other day I was given money to buy lunch, as presumably my parents felt bad about me buying my own food every day.

There wasn’t a single second where I actually considered buying food with that money.

A pointless anecdote from this week :

You know when you do something that just makes you think "Fucking hell, I’m a complete idiot"?

The other day I was walking down towards the bus stop to head into town to meet some people. I get around the corner where I can see the road that buses drive down, and see one bus driving off. Feck. If only I’d tied my shoes a bit quicker and walked a bit faster, I’d have gotten that bus. Not to worry, there’ll be another.

In the place where I usually get the bus, there’s about six different buses that regularly pass through, of which I can get five. I get around the corner to where I can see the bus stop, but still have a bit of walking until I get there. And I see another bus. Feck! It was stopped at traffic lights, behind a car. If I miss this one too, then I could be waiting a while for the next.

So I decide, fuck it, run to the next stop, to get there before the bus does. So I ran. Ran like a motherfucker I did. Was getting close, and then saw a car go by me, which meant the bus was next. Threw an arm out as I ran, to indicate to the passing bus that I wanted to get it. He slowed down dramatically, and stopped just after the bus stop, waiting for me to continue running and get on.

Then I looked at the bus number, and it was the one fucking bus that doesn’t go into town. I didn’t know what to do then. I had ran for ages, looking like a right dope, and the driver had stopped for me and all, and was waiting just ahead. I just waved it on, in the hope the driver would be looking out his mirror and understand what happened. He did, it seemed. And drove off.

So then I was waiting the next bus stop on from my usual. I didn’t like this. I much prefer my usual one - you can see the bus coming for ages from there.

So I check the bus timetable, and see there’s no other buses coming for a few minutes, so decide to walk to my usual bus stop. A fucking stupid decision if ever I heard one.

You know what’s going to happen don’t you?

About half way back towards my bus stop I see a bus coming, and it’s one I can get.

"Oh for fuck’s sake".

Back and forth like a feckin’ yo-yo here!

And so I turned and ran back to my second bus stop, having to do the throwing-your-arm-out-to-stop-the-bus thing yet again. Thankfully this bus also stopped for me, and I was ever so grateful until I saw some people getting off there, so I didn’t even need to run like I had done.

Got on the bus and sat there for the journey thinking about what a fucking idiot I was.

There’s no sweat quite like the sweat you build from doing a whole lot of unnecessary sprinting.

Great guy/gal of this week :

Whitney Doyebi. For two reasons :

1. I’ve nobody else in mind this week.

2. She asked me, in a drunken email.

Whitney is a friend of mine that moved back to America (where she originally came from) when we were in first year of secondary school. All American she was, with her accent and her enthusiasm and mannerisms.

About two or three years after she left us, Whitney found us all through myspace or bebo and has been keeping in contact ever since.

The other day Whitney sent me a drunken email explaining why she deserved the great guy/gal of the week.

She is a great girl however. Once, back in fifth class I think, Whitney loaned me some accessories to enhance my "goth" costume that I was wearing to a fancy dress party.

Shitney <3

Product/Service I like this week :

The pub on campus in Trinity.

Cans of beer for half the price of a pint? Yes please!

Why don’t more pubs do this?

You can still make good profit (they’re charging over double the price that a can of beer retails at), there’s no cleaning glasses, no cleaning up smashed glasses, and you draw in the broke students.

You can still get pints in there of course, but very few people do. Guinness is my drink of choice (yes, I’m an old man) so I tried that in there first. They gave me my pint in a plastic glass.

Are you serious? Guinness in a plastic cup? Why not just give it to me in a muddy old wellie or something while you’re at it?

A quote :

"Show me a man who lives alone and has a perpetually clean kitchen, and 8 times out of 9 I’ll show you a man with detestable spiritual qualities."

- Henry Charles Bukowski

Favourite song this week :

You Can’t Hold No Groove - by Victor Wooten

Best bassist in the world in my opinion.

I’m not sure if non-bassists would appreciate this song, but fuck it, I think it’s class.

Victor <3

Enjoy.

There we are now.

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