mac's world-o-stuff :: a weblog with a bad name


mac's world-o-stuff :: wasting valuable web space since 1999



Friday, May 31, 2002

The Fugazi tour has been postponed due to a death in the family. I don't know who, I don't know the band anyway, and it feels kinda cliched of me to say that my thoughts and prayers are with them, but I'd still like to convey a similar sentiment. Let's hope they're doing okay and can reschedule things without too much hassle later in the summer.

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Thursday, May 30, 2002

I haven't been posting here much lately, mainly due to the fact that my life hasn't been very interesting. Don't expect that to change for at least a week or two. If you want incisive commentary on world events, read another blog or a newspaper or something.

I finally got around to seeing Attack of the Clones on Tuesday morning at the UGC in town (€3.75 for all shows before noon, oh yeah). Some highlights:

  • The speederbike (speederbikes are cool)
  • Yoda getting busy with a lightsabre (of course)
  • Five words: Christopher Lee on a moped

and some criticisms:

  • Hayden Christensen was terrible, just awful
  • Why did Ewan McGregor sound like a 1940's BBC continuity announcer?
  • CGI Yoda is good, but not nearly as good as puppet Yoda

Overall? I enjoyed it. It had some of that 'Empire Strikes Back' feel to it, what with the action kicking off from the get-go, and of course the big finale, with the Jedi teaming up with the proto-stormtrooper clone army (notice the cog logo on their helmets? I did).

However, it was far too long (by about 30 minutes at least), and it seemed quite disjointed, as if Lucas didn't quite know how to link the first and final acts together properly.

But it was still miles better than the Phantom fucking Menace.

While I was in town I went to Schuh (it took me ages to realise how to pronounce that) and bought myself a pair of shoes (obviously) from these fine upstanding young people. I still have to break them in properly though. I wore them to work yesterday and my feel hurt like hell.

When I got home after all of that, I fell asleep for half an hour. Whee I woke up, I didn't feel at all well. Dizzyness all afternoon, shooting pains behind my eyes, heavyness in my legs, and I was quite drowsy. I dunno what brought it on, maybe my blood pressure was a bit high or something. Time to watch my salt intake more carefully, methinks.

I felt okay yesterday though (besides my foot problems), and after my shift I hung out with Eoin for a few hours. I won't seem him that often now, and I haven't seen him since before my exams finished, so it was good to catch up, even if we did end up at a Burger King on O'Connell Street surrounded by scary winos.

So, that's been my week so far. I'm working till Sunday, and I'm secretly hoping I can work on Monday since full-timers get triple-time for bank holidays, and it's a short shift anyway. I must get my Fugazi ticket, they're only €13. Can't wait for that show, it'll be fucking amazing I'm sure.

Oh yeah, and I turned 22 today. Happy birthday to me. Not that I feel any different.

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Monday, May 27, 2002

I spent this morning converting my site into XHTML and tweaking it around a bit, and I've just uploaded the code for the main page to the server. It seems to be working fine. I'm happy.

Oh, sure, it doesn't validate, but I don't really care. It's basically well-formed, so no fatal errors.

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Sunday, May 26, 2002

Olan's band are supporting Agnostic Front at their Dublin show in July. I'm definitely going along, since a) they'll be on early, and b) they're playing on Thursday, but Thursday is my birthday and I already made plans. I can't believe that I've known Olan almost two years now but I've never seen Abaddon Incarnate play live.

I'm thinking about going into town to see Star Wars tomorrow morning. I also need new shoes, so going to town rather than the UCI makes sense.

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Friday, May 24, 2002

Heads up! It's Friday Five #16:

1. What's the last vivid dream that you remember having?

It was a long time ago. Probably the last lucid dream I had (see #5).

2. Do you have any recurring dreams?

No. I'm not really a dreamer. Or at least, I'm not really a profound dreamer, and I don't really read too much into my dreams whren I have them.

3. What's the scariest nightmare you've ever had?

Probably something to do with Freddy Krueger. Freddy was the bane of my childhood.

4. Have you ever written your dreams down or considered it? Why or why not?

No, usually because the ones I remember aren't very interesting, and the ones that are I forget as soon as I wake up. That's always the way.

5. Have you ever had a lucid dream? What did you do in it?

I've had one or two. I think the last one... it was some time ago, another Freddy dream, but this time I was like the director or camera operator in a Freddy movie, and during the dream it was like I had an epiphany; I suddenly realised, 'wait a minute, I'm dreaming!', and I turned off the camera and basically willed myself awake.

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Wednesday, May 22, 2002

From The Onion: Man Who's 1/16th Irish Proud Of His Heritage.

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Tuesday, May 21, 2002

I hate being sick. Weeks, no, months have gone by without so much as a sniffle, but as soon as I finish my exams, I'm done for. Rhinitis has to be one of the most frustratingly irritating illnesses around - more so for me, since I used to get fucking colds all the time. My throat is dry and it tickles, and I've got a cough that's made my ribs sore. My nose is raw now since there aren't any fancy aloe vera laced tissues in the house, and it was raining and windy all day so I couldn't go to the shops to get any. I can't smell anything - not even a jar of vaporub held right up to my nostrils. I feel like shit. And I have to work tomorrow.

I guess I won't feel like posting much here until I feel better. That'll probably be Sunday night, when my working week is done. I'm gonna be a miserable fucker 'til then so watch out, and whatever you do, avoid the basement at HMV Grafton Street.

But hey, I suppose life isn't all bad. I could be dying. And I did get to watch Judgment Day this morning. It wasn't a bad show, some good booking (except for the tag title match). I still hate the name though.

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Monday, May 20, 2002

Aaaargh! Yankee buggers! $150 is like 160-170 euros, at least 30 euros cheaper than the GameCube here. I'm not happy.

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It was only a matter of time before someone discovered this.

I noticed a few copy-protected CDs today at work. Funny, they were all shite dance discs, the kind of stuff most people wouldn't bother buying if they could get them off the intramanet.

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Sunday, May 19, 2002

I asked the Magic 8-Ball if it was really just a stupid toy with no powers of clairvoyance, and it replied: 'Signs Say Yes'.

Ha! I knew it was hokum all along.

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Oooh, I forgot to mention the new links on the nav bar over there on the right. I've moved the list to its own page, just to make things neater. I've spruced up the linkage, but I'm nowhere near finished; consider it an ongoing project. And I've 'rebranded' the book list as the bookclub. You'll forget Oprah ever had one, I promise you*.

*This promise is not legally binding.

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I've finished with the new look for the site. I'm pretty happy with it, I have to say. I may make some more improvements with the code, but the layout is fine as it is. I'm not really bothered about validation: it's readable in any browser (yes, even Netscape) so that's good enough for me.

I'm also pretty sick right now. My throat is rough and irritating, I've got a cough, and my nose is blocked. Brilliant.

It looks like Bertie is Taoiseach again. It doesn't matter much, the way the system is set up, the only parties with enough mass appeal to actually get into government here are the most boring and undynamic ones. I mean, look at our Labour Party - bland leftists, which is almost an oxymoron.

I found this link to an actually-pretty-good fact sheet on the elections.

I was trawling the Guardian site for stuff pertaining to the election. Strangely enough I didn't find anything, but I did find this. Disgusting.

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It seems that Davey Boy Smith has died at the age of 39.

I hesitate to pass judgment, but with his history, it's not the biggest surprise in the world. But still....

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Saturday, May 18, 2002

First day back at work today. It was okay, very tiring though. I was on till all day, and I was quite rusty (seven months away will do that to you). But I have tomorrow off, so I can finally rest my weary bones. Ahhhh.

It was nice to see people there that I haven't seen in ages. I'll say some proper hellos next week. I wasn't really feeling too enthusiastic today. I hope I didn't come across as bitter or anything. I'm just worn out.

I have been offered a free ticket to Ozzfest. If I can get the time off work, I'll go. I do actually want to see System Of A Down for shits and giggles.

I dunno what else I was gonna say now. Doesn't matter. Wrestling's on so I'm gonna sit back and watch it, then get some late dinner or something.

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Friday, May 17, 2002

Friday Five #15:

1. What shampoo do you use?

Head & Shoulders. So ordinary, I know.

2. Do you use conditioner? What kind?

No I don't. I don't have enough hair.

3. When was the last time you got your hair cut?

About four weeks ago. I got a number three before my exams started.

4. What styling products do you use?

None. I'm not vain enough.

5. What's your worst hair-related experience?

I don't actually have one. Sorry to disappoint anyone.

[ 10:01 PM | link it | ]

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I'm going to bed in a few minutes. It's early, but you would not believe how tired I am right now.

My last two exams went okay. I made a couple of stupid mistakes in the XML paper but nothing major. I think I did alright. The HTML one was a bit crappy. I wasn't expecting the same questions as last year to come up. Actually, the code question was easier this year; we had to write a frameset, but didn't have to write any code for the frames, which is a bit too easy (so I stuck in some extra stuff like the doctype declaration at the top).

For lunch I went to the arts block, bought a chicken and stuffing sandwich and commandeered the large table in the grotto-type place beside the chaplaincy. I'd never sat there before, so I thought what better time to do it than my last day at university. The place was pretty quiet today. Most people finished their exams earlier in the week.

While I was there, I read this in the Guardian. Very enlightening. At least Rather had the balls to own up to it.

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Thursday, May 16, 2002

The clean-up at the site of the WTC will end with a ceremony on my birthday.

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A great piece on typography in the New York Sun (c/o Mat). When I get some free time I'll have a proper read of it, but right now I gotta get some studying done.

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I am so tired right now it's not funny. I need a day off or I'm gonna go crazy. Why oh why did I say I'd work on Saturday? They'd better make it worth my while, because I've already worked myself into the ground over the last four weeks.

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I ran out of time in my logic exam this morning. I didn't expect it take so long for me to work out some of the answers. Still, even considering the stuff I didn't have time to do, I think I did enough to get more than 60% in it, which is better than nothing.

I'm gonna spend the rest of today going over my XML and HTML notes for my last two Information Studies exams. If someone gave me last year's exam to do right now, I'm sure I could do most of it in about an hour. With a few hours of revising under my belt, I'm confident I'll do pretty well.

Speaking of Information Studies, I got my last assignment back today, for Culture, Information and Technology. I got a B+. Yay me! That makes it a total of 3 A's and 3 B's for the year. You never know, I could get a first.

Oh yeah, and I just got my old job at HMV back today. The bad news is, I have to start on Saturday, and I'll be working in the basement for the first two weeks. I hope I'm rostered for a day off pretty soon.

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I completely agree with Woody Allen regarding this so-called 'controversy' at the Cannes Film Festival. Why should he boycott? If these 'American Jews' actually practiced their own logic, surely they'd have to boycott their own country.

How come a disproportionate percentage of the world's idiot population lives in the United States?

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Wednesday, May 15, 2002

I think I'm gonna be okay for my logic exam tomorrow. I've covered everything I can think of. Let's just hope the questions go in my favour.

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Great, another one.

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Tuesday, May 14, 2002

Apparently Nintendo sold 400,000 GameCubes in Europe in its first week on sale.

I haven't actually noticed any advertised prices, but if it is going for only 200 euros, I'll definitely be getting one. I mean, it's Nintendo! And it's cheap!

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Aspects of the Future Circa 1953.

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I was shitting myself over my Philosophy exam today. There was just so much stuff to cover; by the time I took my seat in the exam hall I had literally gone blank. Zilch in my head. Tabula rasa.

But luckily for me, a couple of minutes after they handed out the papers, the cogs in my brain started turning and I actually managed to write (or rather, churn out) 12 or so pages, at least 9 of which made sense. I would consider that a success, I guess.

I'm taking tonight off. It's basically plain sailing for me 'til the end now. I have tomorrow off, I've got my logic exam on Thursday morning, XML the following morning, and HTML on Friday afternoon. Grand.

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Coca-Cola has trademarked 'Jesus'. The end is nigh.

(c/o Destiny-land)

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I was guessing that this was gonna happen.

There's too much of an imbalance between the rosters to really have two distinctive and viable touring operations, at least for the moment. They - the WWE - have a wealth of mid-card talent, of course, but only a few big names who have main event status and the necessary drawing power.

How can this situatuion be rectified? I have a solution. Put all the big stars on one show (say Raw), and the up-and-comers on the other (SmackDown!). The bigger-name roster can tour the larger arenas, with the likelihood of attracting more fan support that they're getting now, whilst the younger, fresher roster can tour smaller venues, maybe appeal to the more discerning fan: for example, the fans who attend indie shows, the old fans of ECW. On one side you get the larger-than-life entertainment, on the other you get the 'new generation', so to speak. Raw could be the Majors to SmackDown's Triple-A, or something to that effect.

I'm sure I could explain this better if my brain wasn't so fried.

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Monday, May 13, 2002

Today's exam - Electronic Resources - was a bit, well, strange. It was split into two parts, an essay section (with only a choice of two) and a multiple choice section, both work 50%. The thing is, I finished the multiple choice section in ten minutes, and then still had an hour and 50 minutes left to do the rest. I took my time, wrote a 4+ page essay about indexing that I thought made sense, filled out the multiple choice sheet thingy, handed up my stuff and left 20 minutes early. A lot of people left before me, but still, there was something not quite right about that exam. It was deceptively easy. Especially that multiple choice section.

I've got my last essay paper in Philosophy tomorrow. I'll be okay for it if I get off the internet and actually do some work on it for the rest of the night.

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Sunday, May 12, 2002

A photo gallery from one of Shellac's performances at All Tomorrow's Parties last month. Cool.

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A few weeks ago there was this, then two days ago this happened, and now there's been another one. Why do accidents like this always happen in clumps?

The real world scares me. I'm gonna go hide and study.

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Saturday, May 11, 2002

I had a bit of time this evening, so I decided to start implementing some changes now, while I was motivated. Whaddaya think? I'm happy with it. I'll finish it off next weekend.

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First Endurance, then Takeshi's Castle, and now this.

Japan is great and all, but sometimes I just don't get it.

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Friday, May 10, 2002

I've decided - the new look mac's world-o-stuff will debut next weekend.

I've been tinkering about with things this evening and I'm pretty happy with the adjustments I've made. As I said before, nothing major. Just a bit of tidying up.

I haven't mentioned my exams today, have I? Without doing a full postmortem, this morning went quite well, this afternoon went slightly better than expected. I was pretty exhausted when I finished. My throat was dry and my fingers were seizing up at the knuckles from all the writing. Next exam on Monday afternoon.

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An interesting piece about how the implementation of XML could help improve weblogging.

I'm surprised such an idea never crossed my mind before, seeing as I keep a weblog and did a course in XML this year.

Actually, this could be a big help for my exam next Friday.

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Thursday, May 09, 2002

I'm so tired. I've been studying since 9am this morning. I dunno how the fuck I'm gonna fit all of this shite into my head for my exams tomorrow. All I want to do it get them over with so I can get home and start studying for the next couple. At least I have three days - after tomorrow - to cover the notes for my elective courses.

I am gonna be so happy when this is all over. Hell, I'll be happy when next Tuesday is done.

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Wednesday, May 08, 2002

Oh dear. Things are not going well in the WWF/WWE at the moment.

I actually agree with the World Wide Fund for Nature on this point. McMahon should come up with a better name, or use the WCW trademark. They even had a cool new logo for it and all that they wasted.

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My Telecommunications exam went okay this morning. Yet again I ran out of time (actualy, whilst in the middle of a paragraph about weblogs and how they signal a new revolution in the way we use the web, or something to that effect).

Speaking of weblogs, I'm gonna give this site a bit of a spring clean when I'm done with my exams next week. Nothing major, 'cause I like my design. It's clean and simple.

I really need to change that image up at the top. I've got four rolls here of photos that need developing.

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Tuesday, May 07, 2002

I had my first Information Studies exam this afternoon: Information Policy. I did okay, I actually stayed for the whole two hours, and I still didn't get to finish my second essay, on legislation for intellectual property rights (I was on a roll, lost track of time, but I made out all the main points I wanted to cover on the rough work sheet). Everything I said made sense. I just hope Ian agrees with me.

Three down, eight to go. I have Telecommunications and Networks tomorrow morning, then a pretty long day on Friday: in the morning I have Culture, Information and Technology (not so bad), and in the afternoon Philosophy #3 (dear lord help me).

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Pssst. Pass it on:

Fugazi are playing in Glasgow next month, so it's quite likely that they'll play here in Dublin too.

Fingers crossed, eh?

In other music-related news, my old work acquaintance Goodtime John is releasing his debut solo album next week. I'll have to get me one. I've only seen him play solo once, but he was pretty damn good, totally different from his stuff with Forty Six Long.

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The rest of Europe may be stunned by this assassination, but I can't say I'm really bothered.

It goes without saying that murder is wrong, but - without making excuses for what happened - he was a racist who would've probably cracked a smile if a Muslim was killed in simiar circumstances.

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This is the biggest case of ass-covering I've seen in a long time.

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Randy Anderson, a former referee in the old WCW, has passed away.

I used to see him all the time on WCW Worldwide back in the day, before Nitro and the nWo and all of that, back when Big Van Vader was still there and cut an interview every week saying 'Shtiiing!' or 'Shtinger!' at least once.

I'd see Anderson in the wrestling magazines after WCW went off the air here; him and Nick Patrick were their two top refs. I'd wondered what happened to him when then Vince McMahon bought WCW, I'd always assumed he'd just be around.

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Monday, May 06, 2002

Rolling Stone has provided us with yet another redundantly subjective music magazine top-whatever list: this time, it's the 50 coolest, and 50 uncoolest, records of all time.

Why am I bothering with this? Because I'm easily distracted from more important things.

So, from the 'cool' list, I have #24 (which is not just cool, it is outstandingly excellent) and #49 (which isn't great, but pretty good, once you ignore the hype machine).

From the 'uncool' list, I have this (Is it really uncool? Does it matter?), I want this, and I find this one intriguing. This one however, while I can't say I like it, is not uncool. (You see, because they didn't need to get big in the States, the Media there - with their cultural superiority complex - assume they just disappeared.)

And as for this one, well it shouldn't even count. It's just a bad postmodernist piss-take that went wrong.

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I just found this link totally by accident. Boy, does this person have a bee in their bonnet or what?

If you want the colour 'blue' for your background, lady, you just type <bgcolor="blue">. You don't have to use the hex code. But if you want a different shade of blue, you're gonna have to use the code. I mean, how is the computer going to understand what shade of blue you want? Think, dammit. Computers only understand computer language, just like you probably only speak English. Jeez, if you actually spent the time to learn HTML, you would realise that it isn't that difficult at all.

Young people these days, they want everything done for them. It makes me ashamed to be one of their number.

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Ha! The Blogger store now has XXL t-shirts due to popular demand.

And here was me thinking that the Comic Book Guy was just a fictional character.

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So, you think wrestling is fake? Read this.

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Sunday, May 05, 2002

I'm not going to the gig tonight. Too much exam anxiety. These philosophy exams are really killing me. I don't remember feeling under this much pressure last year.

I also forgot to get earplugs. That might sound like a silly excuse, but if it does you obviously weren't at the J Mascis gig in Manchester last summer.

This gig isn't that big a deal in the big scheme of things. I mean, it would've been over for me in less than an hour (I only really wanted to see Nasum). My exams are more important after all, and hell, I went to WrestleMania this year! I'll try and make up for it in the future: I found out today that Television are playing here again in a few weeks.

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The end of an era.

Goodbye World Wrestling Federation, hello World Wrestling Entertainment.

I still think the name sucks.

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I cannot help but be cynical about things like this.

I'm off to the Dillinger Escape Plan / Nasum gig in about four hours, but I don't really feel like going. Exam stress is killing me. I'd rather study and sleep. I know that sounds bad but that's the way it is. Oh I'll probably go anyway, but I'm only really going because Nasum are playing. I might leave after them.

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Saturday, May 04, 2002

So the WWF is becoming the WWE? That plainly sucks, I must say. Even WCW is a better name than that. Could they not be even a bit more creative? I mean it's fine for the corporate name (it was officially Titan Sports for years) but for the actual promotion? There's just no ring to it.

How about having an entirely new name? Gimme a few days and I might come up with some suggestions.

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Finally, the truth comes out.

It just goes to show that the recording industry really has misunderstood the demographics.

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Friday, May 03, 2002

Philosophy paper #2 today. It went okay I guess. No major disasters. I dunno, when I write an essay I'm always conscious of the fact that I have to make it readable. I know other people just throw down everything they know in whatever order, just to show that they know it, but that's not me. Surely style counts for something - why bother having essay questions if it didn't? Anyway, I feel like I'm doing better than I did last year, so that can only be a good thing.

In other, unrelated news, it seems the release of Spider-Man has been put back 'til June over here. Probably because of Star Wars. Can you believe the UGC in town is gonna have a screening of Star Wars at least once every hour? Don't they remember what happened when The Phantom Menace came out? I remember that very well - I was working at the UCI in Coolock at the time. July 1999 I believe it was, uuhhhrmmm. It opened on a Thursday night, we had shows at 11:30pm, 12:30am and I think 1:30am. Oh, the 'plex was packed that night. And for the whole weekend. And then?.... pffft.

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Wednesday, May 01, 2002

My connection to Eircom is engaged, and IOL - my backup connection - must have sold off most of their servers 'cause it's slower than a sloth with arthritis. As a result I'm in a bit of a pissy mood. And I have been studying since 9am this morning, so that might be making it worse.

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I hate to say it, but it's about time. There just isn't enough funny to make The Simpsons season as long as it is.

But why not just up the quality control and make the series shorter? And how about a movie?

Somewhat related to this, I started watching South Park again recently after a long time giving it a miss (while it was popular). I have to say that - while it is gratuitously crude and not for the easily offended - it is pretty damn brilliant. Maybe because they can get away with more, it's fresher. It certainly shows.

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