Ain't I been saying it?

10 points to whomever can name the movie I mean to quote in the title.

I'm sure I've mentioned this before but I really like postcards, there is something nice about sending and receiving postcards. Doesn't matter what they say or where they are from. I think it's why I like personal blogs too. The stupider the better almost, just squeeze each thought off the tip of your tongue and onto the paper. Let it soak up that one moment and then post it off. I got a postcard from a young Italian girl (via postcrossing, I'm not off asking random kids to send me mail. Just to be clear.) a couple of months ago which I loved. It wasn't anything fancy, it was just a snippet of her life. What sticks it most in my memory was that she drew at the top what the weather was like, a little cloud half over the beaming sun (as you would recognise from weather forecasts) with the expected temperature for the day.

There's something about that, the idea that a moment, one silly little ineradicable moment is selected and the sudden thoughts are saved.

Now of course I'm not saying every postcard is like this, I know all too well that when writing postcards (especially on holiday) can be a rushed affair and you may say the same 5 key things on each one just like we did in school for our Irish, French, German, Spanish etc. classes. "A Liam a chara, taim anseo i merica creid no na creid..." and so forth. But I do enjoy those postcards too.

For the past few years myself and Master Powell have been exchanging postcards (oddly to the same address, as we lived together for a year and a half of it) from each place we would visit with the oddest things we could come up with, typically hinting at underground spy work or assassinations in the making. (Dear FBI, we are not going to do anything bold, we promise, kisses K & I)

If you want to get involved in this we are of course more than happy to post you a card of some sort anytime! I keep my stamps in my wallet, I'm not kidding. Zakerius at the home of gmail.com of course. Or just join postcrossing, it's a lot of fun!

Listening to Modest Mouse - Broke (great song, great band, good times)


P.S. sorry all of the images take forever to load lately, I've switched back to using my server space and foolishly keep hoping that massive images will load quickly. I will go for smaller images in future most likely.

Nearly finished with September 2012 already

Isn't the world ending soon? I really do never get enough time to finish what I start..
I never even get a chance to start half the things I want to start really.

College term is beginning again, final year of my PhD, the start of my 21st year in education, my 8th year of graduate physics and coming up on my quarter of a century.
More than this, much more than this.. (hur hur) one brother is starting his leaving cert courses (5th year), another has moved to San Diego for his PhD in UCSD, one sister is starting schooling (5 years old) and another is going to be moving to England to continue her graduate level architecture. Really crazy to think, I find it hard enough to believe that little Alannah is 5, let alone that Josh isn't going to be living in Ireland for at least the next 5 years. Feels very odd indeed.

Listening to Interpol on my headphone in the office, just G and myself in the office at the moment, I like Interpol sometimes. What do you like to listen to when you're working? Do you not get to listen to music when you work? I hate it when that happens, I never work right without music. I remember my first job, it was just a summer job in a primary school (1st level of education) near where I was living. I had just finished my leaving cert and my dad sorted me out with a few weeks repairing and upgrading the computers he had sold them years before. I spent about the bulk of it just formatting machines, fresh install of the latest Windows and all that.
I would walk down to the school each morning, stop off in the shop and buy an Irn-Bru and a pack of Crispy M&Ms. I had brought a set of PC speakers (the same set I have in my office now, had them for about a decade [harman/kardon HK195]) and was blasting Eagles of Death Metal while I worked alone in the computer room. The school was basically empty except for me and the odd teacher who was dropping by to grab this or that from their rooms. Just me, spinning on office chairs and checking the HDDs, dusting out machines and replacing power supplies that had lived their lifetime. Was a fun couple of weeks considering I was getting paid to do it.
I like that memory.

My brother is gone D:

    All the way to San Diego, 8363.86 km away (give or take). I really hope he is settling in well over there, in those 40 degree highs and 20 degree lows. With the sunshine, and the sandy beaches. Getting paid to be a student, doing maths (well, he likes that.. that wouldn't be for me). That bastard.

Recent (iPhone) photograph, taken in Blackwater, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (Aug 2012).
My two brothers, Daniel and Josh (L-R) scoping the fields ahead for dinner.

    But I really miss him, even if we didn't see each other every day it's hard to think he's not even remotely close by. I mean, it's nearly the other side of the world (well New Zeland is really the other side of the world to Dublin [nearest land mass anyway]). But I'm really happy he has found somewhere which will look great on his academic CV and also give him a great chance to explore and grow as travel only can (not to mention give me another handy holiday destination for the next 5 years).

    As for everything else in life I will sit down and finish blog posts and organise images eventually. I enjoy writing blogs because it feels like having a journal you can access everywhere (or a log book, draft blog posts allow more control than draft emails for sure). It's nice to collect moments in time and to have somewhere to share things as everyone who writes personal blogs knows.

Childhood photograph, taken in Blackwater, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.
From left to right are my nana, Shauna, Josh, myself and my grandad, rest his soul.

Back to work with me now, preparing a poster for the 2012 International Workshop on EUV and Soft X-ray Sources and getting a general talk ready for the postgraduate seminar I have to give in October.

Listening to Ben Prunty Music's songs from the game FTL (which is an epic game btw, worth well more than the $9).