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July 30, 2004
Rory's smoky ring hole
Posted by dottie at 4:55 PM
Drunken Night photos
Some photos from last night.
Posted by dottie at 1:56 PM
Note to self
Rule 1: Never make blog entries when drunk
Rule 2: do NOT make blog entries while drunk!
Posted by dottie at 12:19 PM
Dublin at night
Walking home from the centre of the city is almost like a revalation when you havent seen the dreary bricks and concrete half-revealed by artificial light for a long time, and certainly not under the influence of alcohol, then its magic time. Sometimes.
Tonight was a sometimes. More than the bleary daze of fermented barley for me - I saw the city as for the first time again. At least for a short while.
I felt alive and invigorated by the pulse of life that drove shenanigans thoughout Temple bar, I abosrbed the passing smiles from young ones passing by arm in arm with their boyfriends. I nodded at the ornate, and forgotten corners of the city that peeked from behind the half-revealing veil of darkeness. I reveled in the sea of humanity that ebbed and flowed in Temple Bar. Sometimes almost demanding that I dive beneath the waves of pretty, Italian, olive flesh and most times reminding me that tomorrow is another day and the 4am receding of the ether will bring a change to my imagined partner that would leave me cold and her assuming impossibilities for my nature - that whihc she imagines I am capable of and have perpetrated, and that which I could never commit.
Such is life.
So here I sit alone and conjure a chant up from my keyboard, a poor replacement for flesh oriented dogma and ritual but a hopeful refrain for the future.
And now - to bed. On my own. But somehow - never alone. I lull myself to sleep in contemplation of my friends thoughts. The second best thing to greeting the dawn, drink in one hand, conversation in the other.
And yes I'm drunk, but somewhere tonight I realise I have touched the bared wires of my life and my nerves are still ringing from the shock. Turn it up and try again.
Posted by dottie at 2:31 AM
July 29, 2004
Howth Harbour
Cliche shots I know, but you gotta do it sometime eh?
What is it about chipped paint, big ass lumps of steel of indeterminate function, rust, twine, and the smell of fish that holds asuch an appeal? There is something that twists your guts with some weird sense of longing, the challenge of the open sea, of braving and surviving (never conquering) nature.
I suspect its a male thing. The smae urge that has us stop and stare in fascination at multi-tool sets in hardware store windows. Thankfully we are most of us just weekend warriors, not the north sea for me, thank you!
Posted by dottie at 12:43 AM
July 27, 2004
Wish lists and Amazon
So I was just thinking how Amazon's wish lists are such a great idea. You know when you are browsing Amazon and there is a book or something that you would lurve to have, but you aint got the cash, so you can save it for later by adding it to your wish list.
Then when you have the cash ( or more likely when the desire for that particular item has worn off...) you can go back to Amazon and buy it or bin your selection. Cool.
I remember when I used to frequent book stores - usually second hand sci-fi places - and you would occassionally see an original hard bound copy of Asimov's robot stories or the like (*very* rarely, but its the fish that got away...) and you cant afford it so you put it in your mental wish list, then you get back a few weeks later, cash in hand and its gone and you have a screaming match with the bookstore owner and then you get banned. Well, it sounds worse when you tell it like that... :)
Amazon's wish lists ensure that such unseemly scenes never happen!
Here is my wish list
I have loads of computer books on there that I will probably never get round to buying let alone reading, mixed in with graphic novels (comix that is...), DVD's and poetry books (I like poetry, not that I understand it, but I like women too and I definitely DONT understand them...)
'Course the the fact that its my birthday soon is completely coincidental ;)
Posted by dottie at 8:12 PM
Lightfoot is back in town!
Adser is back in the hood! New and improved! With a beaver hat no less! (although he claims its a marmoset - apparently they give better lovin'....)
this was some 9 hours later - hours before we had to stand in a church and profess our sins. God help us....no one else will
Posted by dottie at 12:28 AM
The boys from the NIC
North Inner City buzz buddy! Check out the chords!
Roc and Ralph stylin' the choons - never let it be said...
Posted by dottie at 12:19 AM
July 25, 2004
Wedding fun
I was at the wedding of some very good friends on Wednesday. We all had a ball. Veronica and Damian have been going steady for over a decade, they have a little boy Dylan, just over two. It was a great day, and a long time coming.
I took some photos and I will have them up here before the week is out, but I'm busy and I wanted to acknowledge the day and the joy they brought to everyone.
Veronica and Damian I hope the best of your past is the worst of your future!
Posted by dottie at 2:06 PM
July 23, 2004
The new peeping toms
The interconnectedness of the web means that it is easier than ever before to find out personal details about just about anybody. Often this is seen as the end of privacy. I don't think so.
Now is a time of great change in the way people socialise on a macro scale. The internet allows enhanced forms of traditional communications through chat rooms, emails. More and more people are going to start storing their lives online. GMail allows you to store 1 Gig of data online - Google encourages you to do so. You can share photos with friends ad strangers, you can share your thoughts in Blogs like this one! This worries people.
It shouldnt if they keep in mind that sharing information online is a bit like dressing in front of a window with the curtains open. If you do that then you can't control who is going to walk past and see you, or even who is going to hide in the bushes taking photographs :)
Sure there are folks who can make sure no-one ever finds out anything about them and still conduct their lives mostly online, but that requires specialised knowledge, software and often hardware.
The real power of all this interweb socialising will only be felt when ordinary folks can pull across the digital equivalent of curtains to hide their virtual nether regions from the gaze of the world.
Posted by dottie at 6:43 PM
July 20, 2004
Bottle top camera mount
Cool.
Water bottle + Digital Camera + Bottle top camera mount = steady camera shots
Nice.
Posted by dottie at 7:25 PM
Mario film part 4!
Yay!
Posted by dottie at 6:51 PM
Balls!
Posted by dottie at 6:19 PM
July 19, 2004
Some views from the southside
Posted by dottie at 5:35 PM
Nose fountain alert!
LSD test on British soldiers during WW2
This is the funniest thing I've seen in a looong time :) but dont drink liquids when you watch this - I did and I think my keyboard is alright now, but it was touch and go there for a while...lauhed? I nearly pissed meself
Posted by dottie at 12:09 PM
'New' blog menu
I have added a menu (on the left there between SEARCH and ARCHIVES....) to allow you get to my other blogs - one on music and the other on development work that I do for a ...errr...living?
I'm still working on a design for the blog, but I'm too busy to get it done!
Posted by dottie at 11:59 AM
July 16, 2004
Sky Captain and the world of Tomorrow
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - Gotham city like buildings, Retro robots, washed out fifties styled technology, mad geniuses, stiff upper lips, seriously beautiful CGI and camerawork and - Oh my god - Angelina Jolie with an eye patch and a uniform.
I licked the screen.
Posted by dottie at 1:27 PM
ESB
In my zeal to pay off the 600 Euro arrears on my ESB bill I somehow managed to over pay by €260!
And here was I thinking I had gone mad, missing all that money (havent done my accounts yet this month..) when all the time I had just, err gone a little mad ....
I opened the few bills that came in today and had the happy feeling of knowing that all I had to do was pay this months bill and in one case at least I had the giddy feeling of power knowing that as the electric light burned above me the electrickery company owed ME money :) !!
Posted by dottie at 11:55 AM
July 15, 2004
Holographic projectors
Some guys at Cambridge Uni have found a way to make a 2d screen display a diffraction pattern fast enough to allow it to display full-fram video when a laser light is shone through the diffraction pattern. Cool.
Imagine your laptop with no screen (or a pull out material jobbie) - you just use a handy surface to project onto. A chair in front of you, a wall.....clouds!! :)
Posted by dottie at 7:36 PM
July 14, 2004
Curve ball
http://www.theflashgames.com/curveball-swf.html
Super curve bonus o rama!
Posted by dottie at 11:32 PM
Bowman
http://www.theflashgames.com/bowman-swf.html
fun!
try it with a wall and added wind!
Posted by dottie at 11:24 PM
Gil Scott Heron calls it..
Gil Scott Heron wrote a song back in the 70's called 'H20gate blues' ie. Watergate blues where he bewails the ills that politicians rained on America at that time.
Wars. Energy crisis. Wire taps. Politicians lying and lining their own pockets at the cost of innocent blood. Sound familiar?
It ends with the words - "four more years, four more years, four more years of that?"
Amen brother.
Posted by dottie at 11:17 PM
July 13, 2004
Paintballing the stag
This weekend I was down in the depths of forests in Roundwood, Wiclow celebrating the upcoming nuptials of Damian by running around dressed in fatigues and shooting hard balls of paint at high speed at some people I know and lots I wouldnt like to know.
Alan McEvoy funded me for the outing as I am stoney broke. Thanks Alan!
We arrived in style! Actually they have these things sitting around all over the place to err.. set the mood I suppose!
Here we all are gearing up, not really aware of what is about to happen to us.
After a quick briefing and a very quick intorduction to our guns we were let loose to cause bodily harm on each other. It was fun! I really got into it, it was like playing Unreal Tournament's team deathmatch for real! Some people got into it a bit too much though. They should have some kind of screening procedure for the psychopaths. Its an interesting environment. You get to see weird sides of people.
After all the games were played out, the grooms and best men were all forced to run a gauntlet. Picture a line of fifty people - with guns - and eight defencless blokes having to run 100 metres through a hail of fire. It didnt go well for them. Here's Damian after his narrow brush with mutilation.
He had his face scraped by an exploding paintball and his hands, legs, arms, body - everything but his knob basically! - bruised and battered. I didnt aim at you Damo, I swear it!
Good day topped off by a meal and a couple of pints in the local. Not much talent in Roundwood but what was there was great!
Look at the knockers on that!!
Posted by dottie at 1:17 AM
Shooting gang members...
Amazing photos of members of the LA gang the 'playboys'
I particularly like the one of the guy shooting up on top of his friends headstone. Or the one of the baby asleep on a pile of guns and money, or....
This is so far from everyday experience for most people but is obviously day to day life for gang members. A little peek into a tumultuous world complete with its own internal logic.
Every society needs rules and taboos to survive. What makes these people tick?
Posted by dottie at 12:50 AM
July 11, 2004
Dictatorship brewing?
Homeland security mulling suspension of election...
This is amazing. The people who have been cracking the whip with their orange alerts and talk of duct tape to train their little pets have now decided the time is ripe to let the cat out of the bag.
Tom Ridge, the head of Homeland Security, has let the world know that if he (well, his staff..) thinks there may be an attack on American soil, then they will suspend the election - for the protection of the American people.
Sound familiar? Looks like Bush and co are taking a tip from the Dictatorships of the 80's in South America. Actually come to think of it most of Bushs cronies created those dictatorships! Have they been wokring up to this moment for that long??!!
Posted by dottie at 8:37 PM
USA Presidential ads
This is an amazing resource of presidential ads from the 60's to the present day. Its amazing the ads they had in the 60's for Johnston. The 'daisy' ad was a classic apparently.
Posted by dottie at 8:20 PM
July 7, 2004
Petey's birthday!
Wish my brother a happy birthday today!
He's old - or at least older than me and thats all that matters!!
Happy Birthday Petey! Love you to bits mate!
Posted by dottie at 1:12 AM
Scored some free tickets
Scored some free tickets to go to see the RTE Symphony Orchestra play in the National Concert Hall.
They played one of my favourites - Dvorak - Symphony no 7 in D minor. Very dramatic. It was fantastic - doubly so because I'd never heard it played live and it was free!
They also played some preludes by Dvorak which featured Oboe. What a weird instrument. The sound is very soft but the player has to blow like fuck to get the thing to squeak at all. The two odoe players looked like their heads were going to explode or at the very least they would suffer a ruptured cheek! Loved the facial expressions though :)
Posted by dottie at 1:10 AM
Midnight Statue
Posted by dottie at 1:03 AM
Mostly Clouds
Like the title sez...
I just like clouds I guess
As a kid I used to lie on my back and watch them drift by, it was mesmerising
It never inspired me to be a weather man when I grew up....
I never became a fireman either though!
Posted by dottie at 12:59 AM
LUAS SMCHMUAS
I got to use the LUAS tonight. I was impressed. As public transport it works. Apart from dropping you miles from anywhere that is.
It also has the added benefit of being a funfair thrill ride! I'm not talking about your common or garden variety of scobies that could pass as pop-up zombies in your local fun-fair's haunted house. The thing is a wanna be roller coster. Well, under the firm hand of the driver who obviously harbours secret desires to being a rally car driver.
When we went round the bend for Harcourt street I had visions of us leaving the tracks and skidding into the Odeon, leaving a wake of broken and bloody bodies (not a bad thing...). The wheels were making noises like a cow in its 60th hour of labour. The whole tram shuddered and shook - I couldnt read my book! (HEaven forfend!!) I'm sure I heard the driver cackling gleefully from within the cushioned recess of his padded straps and bucket seat.
It rocked!
The only thing they need to do now is make it open top so we can stand up and stick our arms out the top as we hit the heavy inclines!
The driver skateboarded down the platform, ollied onto this rail and did a perfect front-nose grind the length of it before skulling a litre bottle of Buckfast and slapping the tram into high gear - I just barely made it on!
The driver threw all the passengers out over the Dundrum bridge coz 'they were spoiling his buzz'. As I was reading Joseph Conrad he spared me with the words - 'there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, and little by little we went insane....' - I think he was talking about the LUAS design board....
Posted by dottie at 12:49 AM
July 5, 2004
One of those days
Did you ever have one of those days where all your post is bills and final demands for payment? Your email is full of demands to fix everything yesterday and for free. Your fridge is empty and you only have one teabag left?
If todays that day then look out the window!
Watch the contrast of the clouds against the blue of the sky as they scud their way to some rendevous over the horizon.
Repeat as necessary :)
Posted by dottie at 3:32 PM