they say clothes make the man

Last Thursday i went to cork to see Comic Potential (Histrionics Productions). I woke up that morning and for the first time in several months i Suited Up. And like magic, I was BACK!!! It was like an entire part of my life had been in hiberation while my wastecoat was in the closet.

Another interesting conversation

Yet again i found myself in strange company whilst drinking in Micky Martin's on Saturday. I got talking to Mario from Albania who was lonely and looking for a friend- unfortunately he chose me and insisted I shared a pint with him. He also went around handing out single cigarettes to randomers. Took me a while to get rid of him

Fellow blogger Darran often comes across some quiet bizare and unusual things during his travels through the internet. This is his latest find:

http://darran.tumblr.com/post/253388643/rte-news-gallery-flooding-images-possibly-my

The Eco- UNfriendly Christmas Tree goes on warpath

Yes that's Limerick's recycled christmas tree after it broke free and hit the bridge
full story

Doctor Who- Children in Need 2009

Looks good but i think it was a bit light hearted at the start, givin the end of Waters of Mars

101 things to do before i die

A few years ago i got a book called 101 things to do before you die. Since then i've wanted to complete as much of the list of possible- I'll post details of my progress here (along with my other rantings and musings) So here's the list- i've crossed off the ones i've already completed.

1 Write a Best-Seller
2 Swim With ...
3 Win an Award, Trophy or Prize (The Explorer Belt)
4 Catch A Fish With Your Bare Hands
5 Make a Discovery
6 Throw A House Party When Your Parents Are Out
7 Be Part Of A Threesome
8 Realise Your Childhood Dream (The Explorer Belt)
9 Learn That Instrument
10 Leave Your Mark In Graffiti
11 Storm Chase A Tornado
12 Get A Piece of Art into a Exhibition
13 Meet Someone With Your Own Name
14 Ride the World's Biggest Rollercoasters
15 Stage Dive or Crowd Surf
16 Get into the Guinness Book of World Records
17 Own a Pointless Collection
18 Study the Kama Sutra and Put Theory Into Practice
19 Master Poker and Win Big in a Casino
20 Get Backstage and Get Off With a Rock God
21 Be a Human Guinea Pig
22 Go Up in a Hot Air Balloon
23 Get Arrested – if it happens during another challenge, so be it.
24 See a Space Shuttle Launch
25 Capture the Moment in an Award-winning Photograph
26 Bungee Jump
27 See an Erupting Volcano
28 Sky Dive
29 Meet Your Idol
30 Stay in the Best Suite in a Five Star Hotel
31 Experience Weightlessness
32 See the Aurora Borealis
33 Get to Score a Hole in One
34 Design Your Own Cocktail
35 Play a Part in Your Favourite TV Show
36 Visit Every Country
37 Make Fire Without Matches
38 See These Animals in the Wild
39 Go to the Dogs
40 Get a Free Upgrade on a Plane
41 Be Friends With Your Ex
42 Hit Your Targets
43 Throw a Dart into a Map and Travel to Where it Lands (in progress)
44 Attend a Film Premiere
45 Do a Runner From a Fancy Restaurant
46 Scuba Dive
47 Milk a Cow
48 Present When Your Country Wins the World Cup
49 See Both Solar and Lunar Eclipses
50 Write Your Name Over a Star on the Walk of Fame
51 Learn Another Language
52 Read the Greatest Books Ever Written
53 Complete a Coast to Coast Road Trip Across America
54 Make at Least One Huge Purchase You Can't Afford
55 Score the Winning Goal/Try/Basket
56 Gatecrash A Fancy Party
57 See the All-time Greatest Films
58 Live in the Place You Love
59 Leave a Job You Hate
60 Take Part in a Police Line-up
61 Get Away with the Perfect Practical Joke or Hoax
62 Join the Mile High Club
63 Make the Front Page of a National Newspaper
64 Drive a Car at Top Speed
65 Shout 'Drinks Are on Me!' in a Pub or Bar
66 Be Part of a Flash Mob
67 Visit ... (every continent/country)
68 Save Someones Life
69 In Various Languages, Learn to ...
70 Invent a Word That Makes it into the Dictionary
71 Have Adventurous Sex
72 Have Enough Money to Do All the Things on This List
73 Stand on the International Date Line
74 Learn to Fly a Plane
75 Get a Tattoo and/or a Piercing
76 Invent Something
77 Learn Astronomy and Read the Night Sky
78 Drink a Vintage Wine
79 Answer a Personal Ad
80 Spend Christmas on the Beach
81 Get Barred From a Pub or Bar
82 Build Your Own House
83 Skinny Dip at Midnight
84 Sell all Your Junk on eBay and Make a Profit
85 Visit the World's Tallest Buildings
86 Run a Marathon
87 Conquer Your Fear
88 Get Married Unusually
89 Throw Away the Instant Noodles
90 Join the 16-Mile High Club
91 Publish a Cult Website
92 Own an Original Work of Art
93 Complete the Monopoly Board Pub Crawl
94 Get Something Named After You
95 Get Revenge
96 Be an Extra in a Film
97 Live Out of a Van
98 Go On a Demonstration (Anti Fees protest)
99 Confess
100 Reach 100 Years of Age
101 Continue Your Gene Pool

Not what you'd imagine

From the blog of comedian/writer Dave Gorman

CHOP CUP from :weareom: on Vimeo.

What to wear to a protest

Thanks to Seamus for this one

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/nov/16/ask-hadley-protest-march

What should I wear to a protest march?
The art of looking chic while taking to the streets has long been neglected

There's a need for someone to discuss the correct way to dress for a protest: how to appear serious while avoiding looking slightly deranged? And then, of course, there's the standard-issue sign versus hand-crafted, and does it convey the wrong priorities if it's colour-co-ordinated with one's outfit?

Annabelle, by email

This letter is, yes, longer than usual but it is so particularly awesome that to cut it felt like taking a pair of shears to the Turin shroud. For, truly, there has never been a clearer indication of the existence of a divine Almighty than someone considering whether they should co-ordinate their protest sign with their protest outfit. Annabelle, as my personal guru Stephen Colbert would say, a tip o'my hat to you.

You are quite right: the subject of protest chic is one that has been long neglected and, really, I hang my head in shame. All those anti-war protests that had so little effect on government policy? I blame myself. The people were just not properly attired. But let us take a tip from Tony Blair and not waste time on regrets but rather focus on the future. A future in which neither of us will be president of the EU.

First: How Not To Look Slightly Deranged. There are obvious points here, and ones that should apply to all areas of life, not just protests, so no facial jewellery, no dreadlocks, no glow in the eye of self-righteous indignation fed with the oxygen of half-formed arguments, which is only just about acceptable in stoned undergraduates and is certainly not in anyone over the age of 21.

Clothes that look as if they were bought in Camden market (wacky-wacky, thumbs-aloft, baggy striped trousers; anything with a pompom) are obviously verboten. Unless you are Elizabeth Hurley, you probably will not be tempted to wear heels to a protest (and what would Liz be protesting about, do we think, people? Perhaps a criminal nationwide shortage of white denim?). Plain and practical are the obvious styles to aim for, but nothing in army green because that risks you being mistaken for a rent- a-protester, army green generally being their chosen colour. Similarly, no T-shirts or other paraphernalia that indicate you have frequented other protests: you think it proves your passion, others think you're just a protest slut in it for the exercise and the day off work.

As for signs, I am a great fan of homemade ones, simply for the show of creativity, and if anyone in the protest notices you have co-ordinated yourself with your sign, you are not in a protest, you are in Selfridges.

One wardrobe factor to consider most carefully is how it will help Fox News? Last week Jon Stewart revealed that, in order to make an anti-healthcare protest look more popular than the sparsely attended event actually was, Fox News simply used footage from a more popular rally from two months back. Clever, no? So think of this, people. Next time your boss demands the work he asked for yesterday, but which you haven't finished because you've been too busy playing on Facebook/ Grindr/Netaporter (delete as demographically relevant), just show him some work you did two months ago because, like, it's basically the same thing, innit?

So, with the needs of Fox News always at the forefront of one's mind, the obvious thing to do here is to wear the same outfit to every protest, thereby making Fox presenter Sean Hannity's job just that little bit easier. Of course, the power of fashion can only go so far and one thing it cannot do is control the seasons and the sad end to this story is that Fox was caught out in its small manipulation of the truth because the trees in Washington DC in November should be autumnal in colour and yet in Fox's footage they were a suspicious shade of green. But as Hannity no doubt said when his little mistake was exposed, one can only work with the tools one has. And then lie.

Good listening

I can across this link today: http://www.sadena.com/BBC-Radio/H2G2/

Its the entire collection of the Hitchhiker's guide radio plays (the first season predates the book). It's proven to be a delightful listen so far.

On another note, my work colleague Jakub, was telling me about his DVD collecting habbits. Every friday he buys a DVD, usually spending €10. If he spends more than ten euro, he waits two weeks to buy another. Taking his advice I started doing this myself. DVD no. 1 is Frost Nixon (expect a review in the coming days)

The Ten Doctors

Sometimes fan edited videos can be very good, others are dreadful. This is probably one of the best ones i've seen yet:

Contact Lenses- is it time to take the plunge

While recently purchasing a new pair of glasses (my previous pairs usually meeting their end on nights out) I got talking to optician about contact lenses!!!

Now for most people this is an easy decision. I, on the other hand, cant make my mind up. While i can see the obvious advantages, i still can't get passed the idea of putting something into my eyes- eeewwww

I never thought i'd have an opinion to post about this...

Last night i watched X factor while tweeting. As the show came to an end twitter exploded with an array of anti-simon cowell messages. This confirmed my opinion that simon cowell and louis walsh are geniuses.

First thing first, X Factor (and every other similar show from popstars to britains got talent) has never been a real test of talent- its is entertainment television. Its designed to be entertaining. Its aim is to draw in viewers. By keeping the twins in simon managed to, once again, get front page on nearly every paper in the uk and become the most talked about thing in non print media (radio, tv, twitter etc)

Viewers tune in each week to see what the twins will do. If they were to go last night, do you think viewership would as high next week- hell no!! Simple as Simon Cowell, despite claiming to hate the twins, loves them because they bring in viewers. Sure they may not be able to sing (altho both songs this weekend where good) they do have the X-Factor in their own unique way.

And does simon care if he's the most hated man in britain today- god no. Simon has created a persona for himself as TV's mr nasty. This has made him quiet rich and i don't see him thinking about dropping it anytime soon

an interesting conversation

tonight i made a trip to the pub after work (had a nice pint of paulaner). While ordering my pint, i get tapped on the shoulder by a guy sitting with his friend at the bar.

"Excuse me", he says (in a strong english accent similar to Ralph Brown in Wayne's World and asks who would make a better Darth Vader- Michael Caine or Sean Connery? Initially i suggest Caine but the two suggest he'd be better as Obi Wan. They continue to quote lines from the film with Obi Wan's lines in Caine's accent (these are not the fucking droids you are looking for sunny) and Vader's in Connery's (hello miss leah)

After hearing this i started to think how awesome that film would be

dream job (one can dream...)

Something i've wanted to do for some time is become a festival reporter. Imagine having the summer to travel around all the great music festivals in ireland (oxegen, electric picnic), the uk (v, reading leeds, t in the park, glastonbury) and europe

Sure you'd see a lot of the same acts a few times but the atmosphere at festivals is amazing and it'd be great to compare them.

Spirit Store interview

I've mentioned in a previous blog post about my involvement in the SpiritStore project. Here,Marilyn Lennon, the director of the project talks to Rich from Ilovelimerick.com about the project



Its not until i've started working in the city centre that i truely apreciate the need for this project (or another similar project) in the city centre. I hope we do see this come to fruition

Next Weekend- Opperation get the hell out of here

I'm in a rut, yes a rut. Down get me wrong i'm loving life right now, especially loving the new job, but still feel i'm missing my sense of adventure. I don't think i've left limerick since early september.

So this weekend i have two days off and i'm getting the hell out of here. I don't care where, I just want to go somewhere. I'm leaving the choice up to my friends via facebook and twitter.

So people- where should i go????

UPDATE: Votes so far
France x 1 (would have to go via dublin)
Waterford x 1 (kayakers session??)
Cork x 1
Omagh x 1 (sean recomended the old map and dart approach)
Dubai x 1

somepeople i know might need this

http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2009/11/06/make-the-world-a-better-place-with-the-happiness-hat/

Another Doctor Who Trailer

The Mascot

From ...with a sore head