Friday, November 30, 2001

If, by some stroke of luck, I end up as an English teacher's assistant in Japan in a couple of years, I'm gonna make sure I see a Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION card. Not only is the name of the promotion cool, but the championships are cool (the tag champs are called the Twin Stars of ARSION!) and they're all women. Now that's what I call the future of wrestling; they've got imagination, something 'Moneybags' McMahon is sorely lacking.

Incidentally, I've been starved of puroresu since Eurosport stopped showing New Japan a few years ago, and I've never seen any joshi puroresu (not incliding Bull Nakano's stint in the WWF back in '94). If I had the money I would go on a tape-buying binge right now!

.....

32 miles travelled today. I don't like to do it, but I'm strangely proud of the 'accomplishment' all the same.

Just read an interesting piece about the WWF/WCW/ECW invasion situation in Power Slam, and it got me thinking. I still think what the McMahon is doing at the moment is a major mistake. The quality of writing and booking at the moment flits from the atrocious to the yawn-inducing. Most of his now huge talent pool is getting wasted. There is so much potential, but it's like Vince is on too big of an ego trip to care. This should not be the attitute of the chairman of a Fortune 500 company who now has shareholders to answer to. What we need is a new WCW, not a dead WCW. It could be a prime-time breeding ground for the stars of tomorrow, where the wrestlers and wrestling styles that Vince doesn't want in his WWF to shine. So Vince doesn't like lucha-libre..... then let WCW have the luchadores! WCW could be the ESPN2 to the WWF's ESPN, or something like that. Sure, the WWF would want to maintain its image as the best there is, the cutting edge, but what WCW could offer is just that little something different. Maybe less talk, more wrestling, like the old days. It was interesting, at least to me, what Jimmy Hart tried to do a couple of years ago with WCW's former flagship programme Saturday Night, turning it into a separate world within the WCW, a training ground for their developmental talent - some of whom were quite exciting to watch and who ended up as part of the Alliance in the WWF this year. Maybe the WWF could so something similar with the WCW brand. Hell, even if it failed, it couldn't do nearly as bad as the XFL. And besides, it'd just be a damn shame if WCW was allowed to die.

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Thursday, November 29, 2001

I remembered today that I didn't go to the Wittgenstein symposium on Tuesday. I had a lecture, and a vaguely important one at that.

That Pixies documentary on Channel 4 last night was alright, I guess. The snippet-like interviews with the band (Kim Deal conspicuous by her absence... ahem) and people like Steve Albini were okay, but Travis? Bono? I mean that's like getting Kenny G's opinions about John Coltrane. They're just not in the same league musically, at all, and it ruined it for me.

Oh, and before I forget it, for my own sake, here's the run down of the card from the WWA show last night:

• WWA International Crusierweight Title match: Juventud Guerrera (Champion) defeated Psicosis
• Vampire Warrior defeated Luna Vachon
• Hardcore Tables match: 'Screamin'' Norman Smiley defeated Crowbar (this one was pretty funny, Norman screaming in agony and all, and a table got smashed, which was nice)
• Grandmaster Sexay defeated Disco Inferno
• Konan and Nathan Jones defeated 'The West Hollywood Blonds' Lodi and Lenny Lane (that Nathan Jones guy is like Test, or a young Kevin Nash, only cooler-looking. Test is shit, so the WWF should really have a look at this guy)
• Buff Bagwell defeated Stevie Ray (this was much better than Bagwell's match with Booker T on Raw a few months ago, proving to me that he's capable of pulling off a good (not great) match, and it begs the question: why did he blow his big chance? He could be on a guaranteed $100k per annum contract at least if he'd just tried that night)
• WWA World Title match: Jeff Jarrett (Champion) defeated Road Dogg (bit of a let down, for a main event, I have to say)

Right now I'm setting up a new online photo album for the site, whilst simultaneously thinking about my thesaurus tree for the electronic resources assignment. I'm gonna go finish that in a few minutes, and then watch telly for the rest of the evening. I haven't done that for a while.

.....

Just back from the Point a while ago. To be honest, I was initially very impressed with the WWA set-up. It's basically the WCW before McMahon bought it - only on a much smaller budget - so I was quite familiar with the aesthetic: the ring, the roster, the camera work (yes, they had a TV crew there, and a big screen) and so on. And overall the quality of the matches was good. But there was something lacking, I dunno...... It started off well, the Point was absolutely packed. I mean, I've been to seven live wrestling shows now, but until tonight the Point had never been full before. The first match was pretty entertaining, Juventud Guerrera versus Psicosis (who wore his mask to the ring but took it off for the match, which was a bit lame really 'cause he looks like Ralph Macchio without it), albeit short. The rest though were passable (probably made more so by the crowd who were kinda whipped into a frenzy) but nothing to write home about. There was a funny dancing sequence in the middle of the show though, after the Disco Inferno/Grandmaster Sexay match.

However, then came a twenty minute intermission. I hate intermissions. There's no point in leaving your seat in the Point because the queues for anything are always miles long. And besides that, the show lost momentum big time. The spark went out of the crowd. And the gay tag team thing was a bit crass (I mean, they're heels, Lenny and Lodi, so they wouldn't be good posterboys for GLAAD..... and they called themselves homos..... and their finisher is called the Gay Bomb.... I dunno, the gimmick would work better maybe if they were less direct about it, like the way RuPaul doesn't run around screaming 'I'm a drag queen!' at people - she just works it, girl). The main event was a bit of a let down. I think most people would agree that the Road Dogg isn't top card material...... and the whole commentating thing was a bit ludicrous. I mean, we really don't need a running commentary while we're sitting in the arena, it only really works for the folks at home.

But whatever about my criticims: the promoter guy Jeremy certainly seemed impressed my the reaction for his roadshow. It was a sell-out, after all. So they're coming back in May. And they might be doing a pay-per-view........ what's more interesting about this is that it's fair to assume the WWF was keeping an eye on the performance of this tour, with regard to their own tour in the new year..... in short, if they're guaranteed a full house (and in this climate, they certainly are) then they'll return. Which'd be nice.

But enough about wrestling. There's a documentary about the Pixies on Channel 4 right now, which I intend to sette down to watch.

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Wednesday, November 28, 2001

Things to do this week:

• Get my readings done for electronic resources on Friday
• Get my assignment done for electronic resources on Friday (just one tricky venn diagram and a thesaurus tree to do)
• Think about getting a good night's sleep (I have to plan ahead for things like this, with my tendency to drift off watching telly 'til 1am and so on)
• Think about getting some more Belgian francs, then promptly forget about it
• Eat better, and at more sociable hours
• .......... I can't remember anything else... I need a sandwich

.....

Back at Daedalus. Came in early for my HTML class. Just for kicks.

The wrestling show is on tonight - my uncle Jim is giving us (that's me, him and my cousin Sean) a lift to the Point earlyish. The doors open at 6:30pm. There's a slim chance we might get in earlier than that: my uncle's got a press pass. I'm looking forward to it. Shame I have six hours of college to get through first.

You know what I need right now? A good night's sleep. I haven't had one in ages.

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Tuesday, November 27, 2001

The sun is shining. I think it's safe to go outside now.

I'm hungry....... the chicken and stuffing sandwiches are calling me!

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Oh yes, I want one of these for Christmas!

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Ninety minutes left. I am bored out of my tree. I think I'll go get some lunch in an hour or so. Just had a looksee at the floppy I have with me with my e-journal project. I have to get a bit more of that done later today, but not here. The terminals are too fiddly, the monitors are awful, and there's too much commotion.

And I just remmebered that I'm supposed to be sneaking around the DepLIS classroom later, before my telecommunications lecture, to look at the Library of Congress subject headings books to see how to plan my thesarus tree. So much to do, so little specific time to do it in.

.....

Right, so I changed computers, because for some reason the " and @ key functions are swapped over - very annoying - and the # key does the same as the \ key, with no other # key to be found. And seeing as my database searching necessitates the # key, I kicked that stinkin' crappy terminal to the kerb.

Of course, now that I can do the search on this new terminal, I have discovered that I'm having the exact same problem I was having at home (slower than a drowsy three-toed sloth). And since this network is supposedly superfast, probably a T1 or something stupid like that, I shall conclude for my assignment that searching for 'online and encyclop#edia+' and 'on#line and encyclop?2dia' is, for all intents and purposes, impossible...... I think I've just figured out what the problem is..... the engine can't handle the variables. I just tried 'encyclop#edia' and it works (52 hits), and 'encyclopedia+' (975), but it can't handle both a # and a + in the same keyword! A-ha! That's going in my assignment, that is! I'm certain of it now - just tried 'encyclop?2dia' (601 hits), but it freezes when I try 'encyclop?2dia+'. And it rejects 'on#line' because it won't search for anything with less than three letters before a # wildcard. I had a feeling this was gonna be some sort of trick.

.....

This is what I get for being a conscientious student:

After getting up to catch the early (for me - it was actually ten minutes late) sardine train (we have such a wonderful public transport system here, dontcha know?) to grab a computer as soon as the lab opens to test my database searching problems, I arrive at Sydney Parade at 8:30am and, seeing as it's a 25 minute walk to UCD, and if I wait for a bus none will show up (the government decalred Murphy's Law a long time ago), I decide to walk. Sure, it's chilly, and the air's a bit damp, and there's a few drops of rain, but it's not that bad....

Well, those few drops turned to a few more drops, and then a few more, and then a few thousand more, and then they dropped faster, and got bigger..... I fucking hate the weather at this time of year. My jeans are soaked, my hair has changed colour, the contents of my bag barely survived unscathed. And to top it all off, it was only when I arrived at the Daedalus building that I remembered most of the terminals in the open lab have dodgy keyboards.

But fuck it. I've got over two and a half hours till I have to be somewhere else: enough time to dry off a bit, and to take my time doing what I came here to do...... What did I come here to do again?

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Monday, November 26, 2001

Uuugh! My room stinks! It's a heat trap, which has the unfortunate side-effect of trapping vapours from the kitchen almost directly underneath. Oh, it's bad.

But I have more important things to discuss. I was on my way out of the Ag building this morning when I checked my cellphone and read a text from Eoin sent a few minutes before telling me that USIT still had Canadian J1 places left. I called him quickly - he confirmed that they had 'four or five', as they told him. I headed straight for the bus terminus, got a 2 to Sydney Parade, got the DART home, grabbed my application stuff (which thankfully was still in one place and in one piece) and rushed back acorss the city. Sixteen miles in two hours, and I was at the USIT office paying my deposit and booking myself a place on the program.

I'm goin' to Canada! Yeah! Next summer I'll be livin' the good life in Vancouver!

While I let all of this sink in, I may as well say something about the gig last night. Phenomenal it was. Myself, Chicken Bone, Mark, Bob and Mick had ourselves a table on the balcony at Whelan's, great position above the stage to enjoy the show. Mr. Lanegan was supported by an excellent band in the shape of the guitarist and rhythm section from Juno and Brett Nelson on second guitar, and they rocked the house good-o. They really electrified and energized Lanegan's earlier, really sombre stuff, but weren't out of their depth turning it down a notch for songs like the Leaving Trains cover, 'Creeping Coastline of Lights'. A brilliant, brilliant show, with two encores as well. And even a Screaming Trees tune! All in all and excellent show that right now, I can't put into words the way I want it.

.....

Mark Lanegan was fucking excellent. I said fucking excellent.

More on that tomorrow. I've got five hours sleep to catch.

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Sunday, November 25, 2001

It's Sunday afternoon, it's cold and semi-dull (the sky is blue but there's just something lacking), and I'm sitting here getting my electronic resources project finished. It's due on Friday; I intend to have it sorted well before then. I did most of it weeks ago. I'm just tying up some loose ends now, doing some searches in the OCLC database that I left out before, and working on my diagram of thesaurus terms (which, once I find out how to present it on the page, won't be too difficult).

A problem I'm having right now is searching for the phrase 'online and encyclop#edia+', which is going dreadfully slow. It's something to do with the '#' wildcard..... the ?n symbol doesn't seem to be working either. Fuck. I'm gonna have to go into college early this week and grab a computer to try it on the campus network. This is really annoying. It searches for normal terms no problem, but once I inclide a wildcard it's as if it can't compute it, and slows down to a barely-detectable crawl. I'm gonna stop this in a minute, lest my brain explode from frustration.

Three hours or so til I leave for the Mark Lanegan gig. It better be good now, 'cause I should really be at home getting this crap out of the way.

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Saturday, November 24, 2001

Tomorrow is Buy Nothing Day. Funny that despite the magic of the internet and all, I found out about this from graffiti I saw on the bus into town during the week. But anyway. Tomorrow I will, of course, be buying nothing. Not that I would have been buying anything anyway, but I won't tell if you won't.

Today, I had a nice half day. I got my lunch at Bendini & Shaw. They put tomato in everything, not good. Before my logic tutorial I talked to the USIT people about my Toronto flights. I now have enough changeover time at Heathrow to make myself feel better.

I'm gonna do some writing this weekend, and get at least one of my two projects finished. I'm also going to the gig on Sunday. Yay for me.

And I've been thinking even further ahead.... I'm seriously considering applying for an MA or a HDip in information studies for next year. I'll have to read into everything, and talk to the DepLIS folks, but it might be very useful. We shall see.....

Dave was online earlier. He intimated that a group might be heading to Japan to see the World Cup. Now if he or Paddy or whoever were going, that would be the perfect opportunity for me to go along with them and visit Japan. My financial situation allowing, of course. And I'd pass on the football; a wrestling show sounds like much more fun to me. I'm very intrigued and mildly excited.

np: Slint 'Tweez'

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Thursday, November 22, 2001

It's Thanksgiving Day today in the US of A. So happy Thanksgiving, to those whom it may concern.

For me it was just an ordinary day, but a day in which I got my ticket for the Mark Lanegan gig this Sunday, at which he will be supported by Brett Nelson, the bassist from Built To Spill (who incidently are a great band - get their album Keep It Like A Secret now, or what the hell, get anything by them) and Juno, a band on DeSoto I've never heard but have heard good things about.

I also got an e-mail from Wendy, which was pretty cool I have to say. Apparently while she's been bumming around the last few weeks, she went to Istanbul. She's job-hunting back in London now. Well, she has some offers already but she's holding out for Hamley's. She seems to have a thing for toy shops at Christmas time.

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Wednesday, November 21, 2001

Still bored.

The Onion didn't update this week (well, the AV Club did, but there's not much to look at for me at first superficial glance).

Just been messing about with my project template a bit. Turns out that my transparent logo gifs actually work, but if they don't I still have the back-up copies saved in three different places. It pays to be careful.

Twenty minutes til my bioethics lecture. I think I'll go get a sandwich beforehand. I've been eating really weird the last few days. I skipped lunch yesterday and didn't eat anything till I got home, sometime after 6pm. Not good for me. And I won't be getting home tonight till late, if this comedy gig at the Student Cenre is still on. Boy am I glad I got my logic homework out of the way.

.....

I'm in college. Kinda bored. I'm supposed to be working - it is a computer class after all - but I've had the skeleton of my project (framesets, navigation bar, topic covered, etc) done for a few weeks now, I still have two and a half weeks till it's due, and all I have to do is flesh it out with a bit of content. Hopefully I'll impress with my strategic use of simple frames (I've taken heed of some of Jakob Nielsen's advice), a splash of embedded CSS, and a lovely gif logo that I made with a freeware program I got from .net magazine yonks ago.

I listened to the first Storm & Stress album on my discman on the way to college this morning. Hopefully I played it loud enough to mess with the minds of a few people around me.

Hmm. I think I might just go read the Onion for a bit.

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Tuesday, November 20, 2001

Well, I was wrong for once.

That programme was actually quite good - conveyed wrestling in a generally positive light, despite what I felt was a bit too much emphasis on the aggressive aspect. I mean, it's an aggressive, high-impact profession, but the the focus of the show - a ballet dancer given one month to train to be a wrestler - by virtue of his background, would have been better arrogant than aggressive. I guess that's the way it ended up anyway, with his 'dandy highwayman' character (which I thought was quite funny actually, it suited him), but if I was just a casual viewer, I don't think I would have gotten that. However, there was a distinct lack of the typically brutish, sweaty Giant Haystacks type in the programme. The guys from Hammerlock were articulate (there goes the stereotype) and came across as genuinely nice guys. As a matter of fact, I've read a lot about Andre Baker and his promotion in Power Slam over the years, it was good to finally see him in action.

Update: Woke up at 8am this morning, looked at the TV which was strangely still on from the night before, and what did I see? An interview on the Big Breakfast with the wrestling ballet dancer. I hope they're not going to make a big deal out of this. It seemed like such a revelation to them this morning thata nyone with the build of a ballet dancer could make it as a wrestler. People, get yourself over to Mexico and see the luchadores in action....... which reminds me..... I checked out the WWF website last night: seems that Jerry Lawler has returned (which will rule him out of the show at the Point next week - not that I care much, I just want to see Juventud Guerrera), and they've given Ric Flair a job. Oh dear.

.....

I'm gonna settle down to watch Faking It on Channel 4 now. Apparently, in thie episode, a ballet dancer trains to be a professional wrestler. I'm expecting wrestling to yet again be misrepresented by the 'mainstream' media. We shall see....

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Monday, November 19, 2001

Finally got logged into the Blogger posting thingy. Just another addition to a day of badness.

I can't get on the Canadian J1 programme.

Right now there's a queue of about 200 people outside the USIT office at UCD. The queue started this afternoon. There was no way I was going to stand in line, unprepared, for sixteen hours just to get a visa. I'm fucking exausted as it is from my thirteen hours of hell writing my essay yesterday, if I did there's no question that I'd get sick and miss too much college, especially at this point in the semester. I feel depressed.... very depressed.... but I know it's not nearly the end of the world. I still have plan B1 (get in touch with the Canadian embassy and find out if I can get a temporary work permit and go over solo), and plan B2 (see if I am eligible for a J1 to the States; depends on the US immigration requirements). It's not like I won't be going to North America at all - I'm still going to Toronto in March - but I had my heart set on getting away from here for the summer. Still, it's not over until all my options are exhausted.

Oh yeah, my essay: it's a pile of shite. I just couldn't concentrate on it; and besides, we hadn't covered everything in the lectures until today. Which is a pain in the arse, as you can imagine.

I'm trying not to feel so negative - I read Mat's latest post to his blog earlier, and it's helping me to put my own situation in perspective - but they're the only thoughts I'm having right at this minute.

In other news, I got rid of that Moreover live news thing. The javascript was dodgy. I blame Geocities. I'm sick of things that don't do what you want them to do. I'm sick of things being beyond my control. I just wanna run out on the road and scream 'FUCK!' at the top of my lungs.

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Saturday, November 17, 2001

I think I'm gonna withdraw myself from the 'net until Tuesday, when all this uncertainly troubling me will be over with.

I feel too stressed out over nothing; I can't concentrate on my essay, I can't concentrate on anything. I really do need an early night, so that's what I'm going to have.

See you on the 20th.

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Gavin Friday has an ad (or rather, a micro ad) on the Blogger website. Now that's a good one!

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Damn. That Moreover news thiny's gone wonky again. I hate computers.

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I think I've made the site a bit more uniform now. It's gonna be a work-in-progress, aesthectically, until Christmas at least. I'm not completely happy with the look; I need it to reflect my personal identity a bit more, but just a bit. Colours - I need to do something about the colours. And I need to add some metatags again.

But right now, I need to get some more work done on my essay. It's fucking cold in here and my fingers are too numb to write.

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Friday, November 16, 2001

Now this is interesting: I just tried to visit the thumped.com website, and was confronted with this.

At first look I thought it was some hacker job, then after a quick look around I realised what it really was. Seems like a damn fine idea to me actually.

Power to the people.

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Busy day today.

Had a guest lecture thing for Electronic Resources: two people from Lendac came to talk to us about databases or something. One of them looked like Linda Fiorentino. Very attractive.

Got my essay back from Dr. O'Shea - 61%. I'm quite pleased. He was actually quite happy with it - something I was a bit nervous about - and of course I've taken his criticisms on board (a few of them I kinda realised about a week after I handed the essay in, and the others will help me to study the topic better for my exams, as is the idea). He got the impression that I'm interested in the subject area anyway, so that's a big plus.

Went to the USIT office to get a proper application form for the Canadian J1. I was told there that there aren't many visas going; just over 100 was the impression I got, which is a major bummer. I have to think about what I'm going to do on Monday night. I'm seriously considering getting up in the middle of the night and getting a taxi to UCD, to be there by 5 or 6am. I'll ask what the story is regards queuing on Monday.

Of course, my essay comes first! Bright and early start tomorrow morning.

I'm very full from a big meal right now, so I think I'll go lie down for a while.

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I just added live news from Moreover to the site. Just for the hell of it.

And now I'm going to bed.

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Thursday, November 15, 2001

Still working on my essay. Not too worried about it - I know what I'm writing about - but actually sitting down to write it is hard. No motivation. I should get my last essay back tomorrow. I wonder what Dr. Pump-It-Up has to say about it. Hmmm.

Spent this afternoon in the library while the match was on, reading The Guardian and writing a letter to Groves while I should have been making notes for my essay. I could never study in a library. Ireland won on aggregate, so we're going to the World Cup; perfect excuse to go to Japan, if I had the money, and if I weren't already going to Canada.

I need an early night tonight or I'll never get up tomorrow. There's so much to do, so much to talk about, so little time. It's almost 11pm now. As good a time as any to get ready to turn in.

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Tuesday, November 13, 2001

Today was pretty good for me. Went to my GP to make an appointment for the meningitis C vaccine - the batch that they had had expired and was disposed of but the doctor who was there, a cool Spanish guy named Dr. Calvo, dashed off in his car to the surgery down the road and picked up a vial of the stuff. Now I'm immunised - great! Dr. Calvo is an excellent physician (I went to him when I was really lethargic, this time last year actually, he gave me some pointers and I felt a whole lot better pretty damn quickly) and a hell of a nice guy to boot.

After that, headed in for my philosophy tutorial - on philosophy of language, philosophical analysis, the logic of linguistics, etc. - excellent help for my essay. And thanks to Cillian I now have the tutorial pack for the Bagman's course.

Then, in Telecommunications & Networks, we had to do one of those split-into-groups-and-discuss things. It's funny how over the course of a few years, you never ever talk to some people even though you see them all the time, and have preconceived notions of how or what other people are from the way they look or dress of whatever. Well, actaully talking, even for just a few minutes, conveys the real person. That's what it was like for me today anyway. There is more good in people in the world than I had previously imagined.

And that was today so far. I'm considering skipping my computer class and my bioethics lecture tomorrow, so I can get some essay stuff done. It's not like I'd be missing anything, so it's no biggie. Just as long as I don't waste the time by sleeping.

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Monday, November 12, 2001

I'm cold, and I'm hungry, and I have loads of stuff to read tonight, and a plane has crashed in Queens, NY, and the doomsayers are gonna come out in force proclaiming the world is going to end.

But at least I'm going to WrestleMania.

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Sunday, November 11, 2001

I can't believe I read nothing today. Not that the day has been entirely unproductive - I watched the DVD of Series 7: The Contenders before it was due back at Xtra-Vision (it was good, could have been better, the ending was a bit frustrating...... Girls Against Boys do most of the soundtrack), I fixed some links on the site, and I had a very good conversation with a very cool new friend on ICQ. I dunno why people knock ICQ so much - sure it may not be as user friendly as some of the other messengers, but I just keep meeting the coolest people, just by being myself.

I think I might go to bed early, have a leaf through some of these books that the library so graciously loaned to me.

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Sunday afternoon. I should really get some work done today.

The Mogwai mp3 I posted yesterday, which seems to have proven a bit too popular, was recorded live on April 17th this year at the Red Box in Dublin (not the best venue in the city, it should be renamed the Sweat Box). The recording was made with my personal minidisc player/recorder, through my dinky in-ear headphones which must be over five years old now, from the centre of the crowd. Hence some of the rustling sounds and such forth. I made the mp3 as loud as I possibly could (it really was that quiet at points throughout the show). I'm quite happy with the results. When I have more time I'll rip some more tracks from the gig (I have 74 minutes worth).

And now it's time for me to have a shower, brush my teeth, and get reading!

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Saturday, November 10, 2001

I will elaborate on this further tomorrow, but check out the Mogwai mp3 I uploaded earlier. The link is at the top on the right. Enjoy.

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Trying to change the weblog page back to index.html at the mo. Not sure if it's working, my net connection is really slow this afternoon. I'm listening to the Melt Banana songs on Noel's tape - they absolutely rule, no question.

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HOLY SHIT! Mark Lanegan is playing Whelans at the end of the month!

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Things I did yesterday:

• Didn't get the vaccination - seems the health board people on campus finished up on Thursday, so I'll have to make an appointment with my GP next week
• Actually stayed in college all day. It was a bit of a waste after 4pm since the computer lab was terrible - it was packed with people not doing the class, and any terminal I logged on to refused to work properly since the network was choc-a-bloc - but I did get a couple of books for my next philosophy essay
• Only had one chicken tikka sandwich, and a toffee muffin. All day
• Went to see The Centre of the World. It was good, maybe a tad too cold but it did have a semblence of soul to it at least. And a low GPQ score
• Picked up my sleeping bag and stayed talking to Karen and Sean for about and hour. Sean showed me his Games Workshop miniatures. He and his dad got ringside seats for the wrestling show at the Point at the end of the month (I know some of the info at this link to be inaccurate, but it's the best I could do). I, myself, got a balcony seat this afternoon - one of the best seats in the house, as far as I'm concerned
• Got home sometime after 10pm, missed the start of Raw so I taped the replay (but missed the last half hour since Sky changed their schedule at the last minute, the bastards). I did get a good night's sleep, though

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Thursday, November 08, 2001

Things to do tomorrow:

• Get meningitis C vaccination
• Stay awake all day and resist the temptation to pack it all in and go home
• Don't overdo it with the chicken tikka sandwiches from Hilpers
• Finally go see The Centre of the World
• Pick up my sleeping bag from Karen's
• Watch Raw and get a good night's sleep

.....

I got a text from Sarah sometime after I fell asleep last night. She and her friends met Mogwai after the show; they signed one of Martin's drumsticks that they caught when he threw them into the crowd. Damn. First I miss friends of mine meeting Efrim from A Silver Mount Zion, and now I miss friends of mine meeting Mogwai.

Then again, if I had been there, I probably would have been too star struck to say anything. Like when I didn't strike up a conversation with George Berz before the Fog show in Manchester, even though I had the perfect opportunity to ask him how the tour was going and stuff. Gotta snap out of that!

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Wednesday, November 07, 2001

Just got home from the Mogwai gig at the Olympia. Absolutely fantastic stuff. I saw them once before, last April, but this gig was just as good. Most of the gig was stuff from their first album, Young Team, which I wasn't expecting in the wake of Rock Action. I was well impressed. As per usual, there was an obvious element of the crowd who only moved when they played new stuff - that always seems kinda ignorant to me.

Another thing that bothered me were the two cackling witches I happened to be standing near. I mean, why pay £17 to get into a gig only to talk to your mate about crap - and quite loudly at that - while the band is playing? I don't understand that kind of ignorance or rudeness. Good thing I had my plugs in so they didn't bother me too much.

The plugs, by the way, were a great gig aid - I heard the whole thing perfectly, without the pain and the tinnitus. God, I'm so old.

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Once again, this page is now weblog.html - I think I'm gonna settle for now.

I am really not in the mood for going out tonight, but I heard today that Mogwai's gig last night in Belfast was the best they've ever played there.

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From the new Onion:

Woman Has Perfect Clip Art For Party Invitation

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I got a text from Sarah while I was sleeping last night. She's going to the Mogwai gig tonight. Dunno what time she'll be there at, but hopefully we can meet up in there.

I also got my earplugs for the show on the way into college this morning. I'm prepared, this time!

In case you may be wondering about why I keep changing this page from weblog.html to index.html - well, I can't settle on one or the other. But I came up with a great idea for an index page, so I'll probably change things again in the next few days.

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Hot Reels just started a few minutes ago on Channel 4. This is the kind of thing that proves how much better British network TV is than just about anywhere else in the world (even Ireland, 'cause we kinda rip them off). Would something like this ever be broadcast on US network TV? I don't think so.

It reminds me of the time BBC 2 showed Patlabor 2 a few years ago, in Japanese with English subtitles. I haven't seen many anime films, but that was the best in my experience. Would anybody else except BBC 2 or Channel 4 show such a movie, in it's original version (as far as I can tell Patlabor 2 is only available on video over here in a dubbed version)? Hell no.

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Nile are playing the Shelter next month. I might pop along fer da laff, like.

Not only that, but Extreme Noise Terror are playing the TBMC while I'm in Belgium. A pity, since they're one of the original grind/crustcore bands. Gosh darnit.

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Tuesday, November 06, 2001

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The new Nasum album has been delayed, which is a bit of a bummer, but they've done up their website, and I just found shitloads of rare mp3s there. Grindcore is the future.

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Sabena, the Belgian national airline, has gone bust.

I'm flying to Brussels next month with Aer Lingus on a route it code-shares with Sabena. Aer Lingus is also in big financial trouble.

Looks like I could be living in Griet's flat over Christmas (only kidding Griet sweetie!).

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From Sunday's Ireland On Sunday, about a 'newly-published' dictionary of Irish slang (which has actually been available since 1997):

The majority of the words in Slanguage have Irish or Ulster dialect roots, but Gaelic roots are often completely lost in the translation. For example, "to put the kibosh" on something comes from the Irish expression "cáipín báis" (death cap).

I always assumed that was Jewish in origin. By 'eck, you learn summat new every day.

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This is what I'm doing next summer. Places in the program are securable from November 20th - two weeks to get my shit together.

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Cannabis joints were mailed to every TD and senator in the State yesterday by a West of Ireland man leading a campaign for the legalisation of the drug.

Ming the Merciless strikes again!

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An appendix to my Sellafield rant last night:
I may not have communicated what I was trying to say last night as I wished it to be construed, as I wasn't exactly of clear mind when I broadcast those thoughts. So, for the record, I do think that Sellafield should be closed, but I don't agree with this CLOSE SELLAFIELD NOW! (as the poster actually states) business. Arrangements must be made to look after those who will lose their jobs as a result of any closure. But, as per usual, students don't really think about things like that.

Why am I posting at this time? Had to give the movie a miss. Reading to do for my electronic resources class on Friday. I want to have time to read this stuff properly, so the IFC shall have to wait till Thursday. The Mogwai gig is tomorrow night, but I'm not really in the mood for it. Probably because, as far as I know, I'm going alone. That and the shitty weather. It rained all day today. And it's dark. And it's fucking cold. I know it's November, but still...

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I just added BlogBack commenting to the site. And now I'm gonna hit the sack.

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Got that logic out of the way - it was actualy quite easy, once I shook away the tiredness-induced cobwebs. One less thing to do this week. Also read through stuff for my tutorial tomorrow. It's on John Searle and artificial intelligence, which was my last essay topic, so I might have a few things to say for once.

I'm going to see the new Wayne Wang movie, The Centre of the World, at the IFC tomororw evening. The last film I saw there was Brian Yuzna's Faust (with Mr. Yuzna himself in attendance). Should be quite a difference..... or maybe not...... depends on the GPQ (gratuitous pornography quotient).

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Monday, November 05, 2001

I saw a poster on campus today, posted by the Kevin Barry Cumann (or rather, Fianna Fail Youth, UCD chapter) regarding an anti-Sellafield protest. That's the kind of thing that studenty political types get up to so I didn't really take much notice until I saw the end of the bill, in bold lettering, a phrase to the effect of 'SELLAFIELD MUST BE CLOSED IMMEDIATELY!!!'.

Now that made me stop and think for a minute. It is obvious that Sellafield isn't the safest of Britain's nuclear plants - that has been well documented in recent years, but it only seems to cause uproar over here because it's the closest to our 'nuclear-free' shores. So say, for instance, a plant in Scotland like Chapelcross was attacked by the Taliban (which everyone seems to be expecting, so it seems to me) - according to these anti-Sellafield people, Sellafield is the only nuclear plant that exists, so I can infer from that that a nuclear holocaust in Scotland wouldn't have any effect on us. Right.

And another thing. Just say, for instance, BNFL fell to their knees, renouncing their wicked ways and closing Sellafield, begging the Irish for forgiveness. What do the workers do? What do their families do? Sellafield isn't a monster factory - it puts bread on the table for a lot of real people, people earning a living. Not lazy arsed self-righteously indignant students, a lot of whom don't earn anything.

I don't like nuclear fission. There are cleaner and safer ways available to boil water. But I'm not gonna go out and protest against something unless I have all the facts.

Students piss me off royally.

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Mat has good things to say about the weblog - lets's hope I can live up to expectations.

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And it works - excellent!

I'm home earlier than I expected tonight. We had a logic lecture this afternoon, and we got home work, which is due on Friday. Since tonight is the only really free night I have this week, I had to skip the FilmSoc meeting to get it done. On the way home, I remembered that I had something else to do - reading for my philosophy tutorial tomorrow. Fantastic. I should really note these things down somewhere.

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Testing...... testing....... one two......

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Just testing my blogBuddy. It might make making posts easier. We shall see.

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Sunday, November 04, 2001

I spent all day at the computer again. I think I'm addicted to looking at other people's weblogs. Is this a bad thing? Well it's certainly bad for my eyes. And my back.

There's so much I want to tinker with regarding the look of my site, but I can't do it now. I'm too damn tired. G'nite.

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I've added the Linkage section to the weblog page. It's more accessable, and it just looks better.

I just remembered that I'm supposed to be staying late in college tomorrow, there's a FilmSoc production meeting at 5pm with a drinks reception after. I'm not in the mood for drinking, but I'll stay anyway. I need to pack up some food to take with me; I can't afford any chicken and stuffing sandwiches at the moment, no matter how good they are.

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I only watch Seventh Heaven for one reason, and that reason is Beverley Mitchell. Oh yeah.....

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The Crocodile Hunter fucking rules. I need not say any more, just take a look for yourself.

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Went for a walk with mum and Major earlier. It's really grey and depressing outside today.

I've spent the rest of the afternoon looking for other people's weblogs at blogger.com. I think I've lost all concept of time. I need to lie down.

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It just started raining, quite heavily raining. It looks like it's coming down in sheets against the treeline of the park.

And now, five minutes later, it's more-or-less stopped.

I need to occupy myself with something more interesting.

np: NoMeansNo 'Wrong'

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Lunchtime! Yay! I'm hungry now. It's gotten real dull outside all of a sudden.

np: The Locust 'Flight of the Wounded Locust'

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Spent the last hour and a half fixing up some problems with the CSS on the site. I think I've got it working dandy in both Internet Explorer 6 and Opera 5.12. IE is handier for me to use since I'm stuck with a Windows machine, but Opera is cool since it's a bit less strain on the aul' resources, and as a bonus feature the ads that Geocities display on my site seem to disappear when I use it.

It's not even 11am yet. Up again way too early this morning. Of course, since I have to get up early tomorrow, I won't be able to. Such is life.

Eoin? Dave? If you're wondering where the diary has gone, well, this is it. I do still have the pages from my previous site - it's not like I'm going to delete everything just because I fancied a change - and I might put them back online someday. Maybe.

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Saturday, November 03, 2001

Griet is online - brilliant! I've missed her a lot, especially this week. I think I've gotten my second wind now ;o)

And while I'm here - I visited this site in Netscape, and it looks awful. I think Yahoo! Geocities are in cahoots with Microsoft or something. I haven't tried Opera yet, but I doubt I'll have any problems. I'll do that tomorrow.

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I got Fugazi's 'Repeater' a few days ago. I've been listening to it nearly long-stop since. I also got their new album, 'The Argument', a week or so before. I haven't listened to it nearly as much. It's not that I don't like it..... I dunno..... it's really good.... but it just doesn't compare, right at this moment in time. There's a lack of groove or something, it's too subdued.... I can't exactly put my finger on it.

Then again, I can barely keep my eyes open. Maybe I should call it a night.

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I've been listening to the scrambled broadcast of WWF Rebellion on my TV for the last while. It's a good job I didn't pay for it - it just finished, a mere two hours and fifteen minutes after it began. Two hours and fifteen minutes for £18? I don't think so, Mr. McMahon.

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From the Online section in Thursday's Guardian, which I only got around to reading this evening:

Paul Gorman's coffee table compendium, In Their Own Write (launched today by Sanctuary Publishing as a "definitive account of the collective madness known as the music press") charts the rise of pop hackery. From 50s Tin Pan Alley and typewriters to MTV and the email age, these heartwarming tales reveal a constancy of drink, drugs, back-biting, score-settling and general bitchiness. Today also sees the launch of Rock's Backpages, a searchable online library that brings long-forgotten gems within the reach of any nostalgic music fan with internet access. The site is the brainchild of Barney Hoskyns, a freelance music journalist and one-time US editor of Mojo magazine. "We set up Rock's Backpages (RBP) to aggregate nearly 50 years of rich, unique and compelling writing," says Hoskyns. He believes the collection has wide appeal. "Our content is not exclusively from the music press - many of the pieces appeared in newspapers, including the Guardian. But whatever their provenance, the interviews and articles cover virtually every seminal figure in rock and pop and thereby have evergreen value. The public's appetite for this sort of writing is proved by the success of retrospective magazines like Mojo, Uncut, Goldmine and Record Collector".

If I had the money, I might actually subscribe to this.

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Phase One of the redesign is now online. I'm still not 100% happy with the layout and of course some of the colours, but other than that, I'm proud of myself. It's almost 6:15pm now; I have the whole evening ahead of me!

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Noel made me a mixtape. It's excellent stuff, bands that he saw when he was in Chicago like Lightning Bolt, bands that I've heard of but never realy heard before like Melt Banana and Men's Recovery Project, and the first album by the mightiest new wave grindcore band in the world, The Locust. I am very happy. I shall have to return the favour somehow.

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I have indeed surprised myself. I'm just about to upload the new site. Yes, it still needs some modification, but I'm happy. The new external style sheet is nice. I might make more changes later, or I might leave it till tomorrow. Whatever. I can smell dinner cooking downstairs.

And I'm waiting to hear any news from Ethan re: WrestleMania tickets. Fingers crossed...

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Getting ready to assimilate the weblog into my website now. I felt like it was time for a sweeping change. I've had the site for two years, always as a hobby, but until I did the last redesign I was never really happy with the look of it (or the content, for that matter). So now I have renamed the weblog. Next step will be to modify the template. Then, arrange the rest of the site to suit. And then I will be done. It's gonna take a while though, so don't expect any miracles.

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Friday, November 02, 2001

I'm in a computer lab at UCD right now, just testing this to see if I can post from campus without problems. They've given us all-day intramanet access now, which is nice. If I feel like it, I can come in early some morning and monopolise a terminal all day. This is a good thing.

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Thursday, November 01, 2001

This is my first posting, and I am at a loss for words. I'll think of something interesting to say later, I'm sure.

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random linkage:

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