It does feel odd to not be fludging from my office, but I felt bad about leaving my fludge off so abruptly. I had a great birthday with some of my friends, 9 people and myself had dinner in Mongolian BBQ, Josh and Kevin got competitive about how many bowls they had eaten, they both got to 6 bowls before Kevin had to leave, Josh did finish a 7th but that can't really count.
We then went to Pravda for a drink or two, once there a group of middle aged, British football fans started singing very loudly which almost convinced us to leave. Luckly they cleared off before we had finished our first round. This peace wasn't to last however as we were soon surrounded by a group of total toss pot larger louts, all trashed at 7pm. After one or two of them had insisted, at length, that we were Spanish, had rubbish barbers, hadn't heard of barbers, were barbers... some of them started pouring their drinks on the ground and one smashed his glass on the floor and stormed out.
Again though, before we were finished our drinks and ready to distance ourselves from the bother the bother left. So we then returned to conversation and left at our own convienience.
All in all I really enjoyed my day and thanks to all who came and hope to see you soon to any who didn't. I know that 3 drinks isn't a usual birthday amount but this year is supposed to have less binge drinking for me and I did also have the presentation to prep for.
On Sunday I went out and met Odette from her work, the café is nice, I had a mug of tea and read some more of Fear And Loathing in Las Vagas while listening to They Might Be Giants on my big head phones. Managed to steal Odette's cold pretty damn well I think, woke up on Monday feeling it, but it's all worth while for the fun weekend!
*edit* I am looking for honest opinions here, anything at all that comes to mind. How accessable do you think my post/update style is? Images too big? Too little content? I'd like to make this readable, because I have plans for my site to pretty much just make my fludge (aka blog) into it. Thanks for reading! */edit*
Back in my office, had an unexpectedly long break from being here, on Monday just gone I had a presentation titled: Z-Pinch Discharge in Laser Produced Plasma, it was supposed to be a 7mins presentation with 3mins questions after, I was third of five postgrad. students presenting. Nobody took 10mins, it varied from 15 to 25mins, the 25mins was without questions too. But I think I was about 12mins talking, and got asked some good questions, not that I had many answers, but at least it showed I was interesting! Tony tried to ask me a question I would know, only I guess I wasn't in the group meeting it was discussed in and didn't know, nice of him to try though.
Following that I allowed myself accept the fact I was getting ill, but that was at 10:30am, and I still had a whole day of talks and chats with my academic peers in UCD to go. I was glad to get home at 6pm. Ended up hardly leaving bed until this morning, when unfortunatly I had to come in and now here I am.
But now I'm out of time, so this is a quick, bare fludge (-new word for blog yo, props to Rory) I do enjoy updating my fludge, but sometimes my fludge just has to come second.
And you know what that (apparently) means! Another blog with your host, me!
So yeah, another week that just flew by. Feels like last weekend was an eon ago. Had a great time in Galway, went swimming in the hotel's pool, hadn't been swimming in years and had never swam with Odette so that was cool. I'm really a damn poor swimmer from such a prolonged absence of swimming, but I'd love to get back into it. Just, as always, need to get my time management down so I can slot it in somewhere.
I never did anything close to what my new years resolutions were, I should've said no more than 3 drinks a sitting for one. And maybe bought the Wii Fit board before I told myself I'd use it. Damn HMV never having them.
I have a feeling the rice I'm eating isn't good... Damn you rice, you better not kill me.
I've lots and lots to do, and as always I bitch about it almost as much as I work on it. Here is a list of things I've to get done: - Magnetism course; end of chapter questions - Magnetism course; write 6 questions on the course - Spectroscopy course; catchup on 10 video lectures - UCD presentation; go through with Enrique, maybe do dummy presentation - Journal club; read paper and do presentation - Report; finish up the report I'd put together, finalise PrismSpect model - JF Labs; correct this weeks reports - Workshop; redraw laser window holders - Lab; test motors in vacuum with feed through (chase Nigel up about motor supplies) - Lab; test newer camera with spectrometer to verify it is the camera rather than spectrometer or PCI board. - EPS Conference; do poster! OhGod!
Anyway, that's pretty much it, I'm more going through it so I have a list... That and to quantify my bitching.
In other news tomorrow is my day of birth, I will be 22 years breathing for myself, rather than all the breathing I did for other people before. I'm looking forward to seeing some folks and such. Shame it had to be a weekend I'm stuck with lots to do, never makes me feel like having much fun. But I'm sure I will anyway.
Been a pretty crazy week, even though Galway isn't that far away any journey like that makes me feel like I have jetlag, still, 4 hours to get anywhere is a long time, should have just gotten a flight.
I have discovered the cure to the mild Monday blues (being the feeling you get, that Monday feeling, that follows a random day off work, for example when the whole country decides it's had enough and needs to watch young people get drunk and litter the towns and cities). This cure is, so that you don't all think I'm holding out on you, to take two milky, long brewed mugs of tea and wear a Russian officers hat for two hours. Repeat as nessesary if effects are not felt immediatly. (not quite this one, but very alike, just cheaper looking, circa 1992) If you're allergic to Russian hats, or milk, then I advise you to seek alternative medicine, but this cure should work for everyone regardless of their alergies.
Today went by, as days do, and has left me feeling mixed, like a cake just before oven time (I want cake). I feel amazingly happy that tomorrow is the day of Fri when things of one time end and a break begins so that the brain can forget why it was crying for days and days and allows you to be happy a while, but as the same time I'm feeling very stressed that I had a lot of things to do this week and I've really not done any because the week has ended before it told me to start (bloody cheater).
Galway soon! I can hardly believe it! I feel like it was only yesterday I was saying I wish it was tomorrow that I was going (I did say that yesterday, yes, but I also said it Not yesterday so my use of the phrase implys to the latter). Weather is supposed to be not the may west, but country trips are supposed to have a bit of rain, how else do you end up in the awful tiny bar which is clearly someones front room and smells of cabage and dead mouse?
I miss Wexford, and shooting. There is a feeling that you get while hunting, or even just cleaning the gun, some sort of peace that I have very seldom found elsewhere, I know it sounds weird, but everyone has their things they do and one of mine is shooting bottles or pieces of white card with little animals on. It's not macho stuff either, it's just something. Plus I love that I'm not bad at it, it's a sport I actually count in the 'good-at' category. Which I can tell you are not many. And another thing is I don't wear my glasses, AND shoot with my bad eye. Nuts I know, but it seems to work, though I might need to wear my glasses next time, been ages. The reason I've brought this up is that this past year the Gardaí have brought in new regulations for gun licencing (about time!) which means they actually have you jump through some hoops. I'm really keeping fingers crossed they take my application through, I don't know how many 21/22 year olds are looking for silenced .22 rifles to "hunt". Especially ones from Finglas, here's to hoping they see that I'm a scientist and just say 'oh, he's just weird that's all'.
What else what else. Have to give a talk in UCD on the 29th of March, going to make for a fun birthday weekend before it! I don't even know what I'm supposed to talk on, been given 7mins to talk about what I'm planning on doing maybe? I think I can do that... Does mean that for any of you that have to talk to me before then I'm going to spend even More time talking about lasers and plasmas and physics crap. Poor you. But I have to do a poster too, for DCU in June, so I guess this is good, means I will have an easy time putting the poster together. Amazing how many balls they want me to juggle all at once, wish I'd learned to juggle. Not that it's just me, everyone gets work loads around abouts the same, just spaced out differently.
I'm really supposed to be doing magnetism, but I was just so happy about discovering the cure that I had to post about it. All day long the day has seemed to be trying to get me down, I figure it was all leading to this ground breaking cure.
I'm sure everyone knows that feeling, or place of mind where everything must be done, everything must be cleaned and sorted and perfect, hours will be spent, days! Just as long as I don't have to do whatever it is I was doing until I noticed the sock on the floor or the dust cluster, or that my Google Reader follows didn't make sense when I have Blogspot follows too... Hours and days for sure.
I'm just lucky most of my friends don't have blogs or I really never would get anything done, but I do really enjoy reading my friends blogs and am glad that some of them are getting recognition for the time and effort they put into their online activities, whether work related or personal.
For myself I guess I would like to be followed by more people, but I never know who I am talking to (or at) as it is, and being someone who likes to sculpt what they say and to whom (social chameleon style, although I think I tend to get a bit like a chameleon experiencing every possible social situation at once), more people would probably make my use of language even more awkward.
I'm back into the swing of college work Just when my week gets turned upside down by other people needing to use my PC for code. But that is finished with now, which leaves me with getting back to work, which on a Friday evening isn't an easy task. But I've nothing to do tonight! Nobody asked me to do anything and anyone I have asked isn't around. So I'm here, with my magnetism course notes (and questions, how I hate them), my spectroscopy course notes and videos, my report to finalise, the EUV photodiode to setup and a million reasons to go home or just away from all this, all centred around my id and its desire not to work.
Yesterday I found the above YouTube video and pages full of Airsoft games held in forests and suchlike. I must say these things do look fun, but on the other hand I can't help but think of LARPing for a different crowd. Yes it's a crowd I fit in a lot more with but no I don't want to be in it.
Even if I do like the uniforms.
I was also redirected to this and thought it was worth sharing with people, very pretty, a huge amount of effort no doubt. I would like to say I have more news but I really don't. Lots of things going on and planning to have occur around me. Last weekend I went up to Ravensdale to see my mother and went for a lovely hike in the sun we had.
Didn't go that far or for that long, around an hour and a half in total, though I did run down the hill in the end, wanted to make it down before the dirt bike caught up with me (yes, I was imagining some sort of 007 moment as I ran downhill, sheep skull [long story short it had horns, my mam wanted a sheep skull with horns and now she has one] in my backpack and GPS tracker in pocket, but most guys get these thoughts when left to themselves for too long, or so I'm told).
This weekend, as in right now, I am going to be celebrating Odette's 21st Saturday night and possibly watching movies on Sunday night in Rory's with those whom he has invited. Following that on Tuesday my little twin cousins are making their confirmations and I'm seeing them in the evening, the following weekend I'm in Galway for a holiday, the weekend after that I turn 22 for the first and last time in my life (melodrama!).
If I looked like Gene Kelly I would rule the world. All in all I am getting no work done, but enjoying trying to avoid it! So isn't it a win overall? Following my birthday weekend (speaking of which, everyone should keep Saturday the 27th of March free, because I'm just that wonderful that everyone should want to see me) is Easter weekend, which I will be spending in Ravensdale once more, putting yet another weekend between me and the Anchorman Saturday night (sorry Kitty).
But that's the pleasure of only really having your weekends for certain, though as I have said countless times, if I can get into a habit of getting in early to college I will be able to reclaim my evenings more easily.
Also, to those of you who read what I say often, whether it be here or on twitter, I groan a lot, but that's because I'm a complainer. It's what I do, so I'm sorry if I make myself seem ungrateful, because I'm not, I am a very happy person but seldom speak of the sunny side. I can’t wait for Galway! TTFN.
*edit* I can never seem to find a good image host! RARG! I'd have to resort to using my own site but I can never remember what the bloody open port is and when I finally do I find that bloody TCD block the ports. So back to the really slow one I found. */edit*
http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2007/01/013107.html Ze is a man I am beginning to think of as a very very good soul, I like him.
Apart from that it's a lunchtime, only this time not Friday.. time. I've been working hard on not working these last few days, my brain feels a little short circuited and I'm trying to get some things sorted so I can finish stuff off, but for me 80% isn't what Ze's 80% is, it's more like the point at which you can proceed no further without a leg up. Although I think that is the key difference between doing something you like or want to like and doing something you have to, or tell yourself you're being made to do.
The second I put down my notes after term time in college I would go and find articles from physics journals, find out tons of things and seek after interesting ideas, day one of term time I lose the love and revert to a big baby who has to be hand held through the work. Does that mean I don't love physics? Or just that I'm very immature and unmotivated?
I want to be good at art, or poetry, I like to draw and like to write, sometimes I think my ideas for movies, skits or images are amazing (as I'm sure most people do, I'm not thinking I'm alone or special on this subject) but in most ways I seem to lack the drive (and others the skill), often I bail at the 80% mark and decide this wasn't for me, if I even make it that far. I tell myself certain things, "yes, you can draw, you just can't do faces" so I never do, and so I never get any better at them. And in some ways I get afraid of losing my license over the ideas, although that is more of a hollow fear as I never have ideas I like for that long.
Written a long time ago, on a bus from not so far away.
It's not that I don't ever do things I like, there are always those times. I'm just saying that at this moment I haven't completed a project in a long time. There are son many I would love to spend time on, electronics projects, painting, building, programming, designing, planting, learning.. And in one way I'm happy I've had all these ideas (Note to self: write them down!) but in the other I wish I could just sit down and do them!
Anyway, lunchtime is over, time to get back to it.
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