Hello, Young Lions

Horsell Common

2010-07-22T21:59:00.004+01:00

[2200]

About 18 months ago, while I was falling madly in love, I visited Nottingham with Crowd Control to see them play. While there, I found a copy of Jeff Wayne's musical version of War Of The Worlds on vinyl in a charity shop. I used to listen to it so much when I was a kid so I was absolutely stoked when I found it. It's in pretty great condition and the packaging is so good.

It still sounds good too.

[2300]

PERFECT ORGANISM

2010-07-16T00:40:00.003+01:00

[0040]

I was born nearly 31 years ago. I wish I'd been born 18 years earlier so I could have seen Alien in the cinema without knowing anything about it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=0oYNvmNZP2o

I read an article recently about how the art of making teaser trailers was dead. Nothing is left to the imagination anymore. There's plenty of times I've watched a trailer and thought "Well, at least now I don't have to go and watch that" because everything is given away up front.

I'm watching Alien right now, anyways. Brett just bought the farm and Dallas is in the airducts.

I don't really wish I was born 18 years earlier. That'd make me almost 50...

[0048]

DUM DADUM DUMDUMDUM CLACK CLACK

2010-05-27T12:03:00.004+01:00

[1207]

Last year, in part celebrating my 30th year of staying alive, I went to Japan with my homies Chris and Laura, and met up with my ladylove Sarah and her brother James.

It really was one of the best times of my whole life. My plan to climb Mount Fuji on the eve of my birthday and watch the dawn didn't come to fruition, but the birthday I had was all the better because I got to have a good nights sleep, and I still got to make the climb a few days later.

I'm reminded of this because, right now, I'm trying to figure out if I buy a copy of Taiko no Tatsujin online, will it run on my Wii. We played this quite a bit while we were there, and while it'd definitely be more fun in the arcade, I'd quite like to be able to play it at home. Because, seriously, does this not look like the best time ever?

[1223]

Burning Love

2010-05-22T17:58:00.005+01:00

[1758]

Time has really gotten away from me today. I've got Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on while I'm cleaning up a little. I wanted to get out to the shops to get some food, but I honestly can't see that happening now. Oh well.

I did manage to get another piece of pixelart done, but I'm a little unhappy with the colours. I'll have to wait til I get my next delivery.

I can't wait til next weekend.

[1804]

Stupid fucking fingers

2010-05-22T13:46:00.005+01:00

[1346]

This one took me three tried to do. I kept on knocking it and spilling the beads everywhere, but it eventually came out okay, I think.

I remember watching The Wizard, with Fred Savage, and them unveiling Super Mario Bros. 3 at the end. It looked like the coolest game ever. It was too. The powerups were really inspired. This one isn't my favourite, but it's definitely one of the best.

[1355]

No clever title. Best weekend ever.

2010-05-16T22:30:00.006+01:00

[2230]

I flew in to London Luton to visit Sarah for the weekend on Friday. I don't write about her very much, but she's far and away the most important person in my life, and yesterday was our one year anniversary.

Rather than chilling out or going to a restaurant or something like that, we decided to go to Thorpe Park for the first half of the day with Sarah's brother and his girlfriend and then to Nottingham with a friend of hers to see bands play.

It was seriously the best day I've had in so long.

It was a Saturday so Thorpe Park was pretty busy. We managed to go on most of the "big" ones though. We started out small, going on a rollercoaster in the dark, that went backwards called X:\NO WAY OUT. There were, in fact, a lot of ways out of this one, and it wasn't good. From here, however, everything was awesome.

After a 70 minute queue, we went on Colossus, which was incredible and had 10 loops (a world first, apparently) including an unnerving lazy corkscrew.

Next we went on Stealth, which has a very misleading name, because it's set in a sort of 50's speedway, and the cars are shaped like cars. This went from 0-80mp/h in less than 2 seconds before going through a 90 degree vertical turn, and up 205 feet in the air.

After lunch, James and I went on Detonator, which is one of those vertical drop rides, before taking the fastrack onto Nemesis Inferno, which was awesome. James and I went on Rush, which was like a giant swing, but infinitely more dangerous while Sarah and Nicola went on Quantum, which was a magic carpet style ride that looked and sounded like it could fall apart at any minute and Flying Fish, which looked like fun, but we were over queuing by the time we got to it. Time to head on...

After we got back to Northampton, Sarah's friend Rob picked us up and we went straight to Nottingham for the Never Again/Said and Done show in The Central. We missed the first band, Grazes, but the rest were pretty good. No Reality sounded a lot like Harms Way, and given a year or two, they'll probably be amazing. Times Together were fantastic, and the singer had excellent dance moves. I can see why Chris loves them so much. Never Again are going to be the biggest band from the UK in next to no time. They're seriously so good. Said and Done were a bit dull, unfortunately. They had some good riffs and bits, but don't seem to be able to string them together into solid songs. Their Leeway cover was great though.

After hanging out with the Notts crew for a bit, which is always fun, we headed back to Sarah's. I fell asleep in the car and woke up when we pulled into the driveway.

Today, we had an absolutely incredible meal.

The main course was a smoked tofu, mushroom and marinated shallot tart in a puff pastry, with a balsamic glaze, served with purple sprouted broccoli and hasselback potatoes. The potatoes deserve some explanation because they were so great. They were cut in half and then sliced almost through before being roasted for 45 minutes, then brushed with an orange zest glaze before being roasted again for another 10, so they were super crispy and had a delicious citrus taste. The whole dinner was served with a closed cup and chestnut mushroom au poivre sauce.

Dessert was equally incredible. Earlier in the day Sarah prepared poached pears, which were served on a Swedish ginger biscuit, with a scoop of vanilla icecream, crushed biscuit and the sauce from the pears.

To top this off, I found out earlier on that my flight home was cancelled because of the volcanic ash from the unpronouncable Icelandic volcano, so I have to stay here for 2 more days. Despite how that reads, it's actually the best thing that could have happened.

Seriously. Best weekend ever.

[2305]

The arrow of Apollo

2010-05-13T02:21:00.003+01:00

[0222]

I just noticed that I used practically the same name for the last two entries and that both of them were about the same thing. Totally unintentional...

I was watching Battlestar Galactica last night, and I kept thinking my phone was ringing, because all the phone lines they use in the show have the EXACT same ringtone as my phone. This was was more annoying than I thought it would be.

Karl Agethon is the man.

[0225]

Happy cow is happy

2010-05-13T02:15:00.005+01:00

[0215]

I just finished doing this one. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It's for a gift, so this one won't be going into my Etsy store.

:)

Harvest Moon was definitely one of the best games on the SNES. I don't think any of the sequels captured the feel of the game at all.

[0220]

Megaman is Mega

2010-05-04T01:53:00.001+01:00

[0155]

After much messing about, I finally set up my Etsy account to sell some of the craft stuff that I've been doing. I've only put one piece up so far, but I have several more under development that should be completed soon, and I'll be listing them as soon as they're done. I'm quite pleased with the result, even if I do say so myself.

Here's a picture of it. I would have preferred to put one up of someone modelling it, but it doesn't look right on me :)

I have no idea if it'll sell, but I'm happy with the outcome regardless.

I watched AvP2 while I was doing all this shit this evening, even though I know this movie sucks. I'm not exactly sure what's wrong with me.

[0202]

Quiet Before The Storm...

2010-04-15T12:13:00.004+01:00

[1216]

I find it so much easier to write blogs when I'm annoyed or in a bad mood. I'm in a pretty amazing mood right now, and I have been for pretty much the last couple of months.

That's nothing to complain about I suppose.

My crafty crafting is still going well. I'll have something to post about it soon.

SSS this Friday. I'm looking forward to hearing the new sound setup in The Pint.

More info and links and ting here...

[1227]

Oh so crafty

2010-03-31T15:39:00.003+01:00

[1542]

I've finally started doing something creative and crafty after a couple of months of thinking about what I was going to do. I may have missed my calling as an 8-bit sprite designer. I've got a couple of pieces complete and another 2 projects underway right now, but I'll post pictures when I've got a some more finished.

It feels nice not just going home to watch TV at night.

[1545]

These Sealed Lands...

2010-03-17T15:53:00.004Z

[1556]

Today I finally finished Team Ico's Shadow Of The Colossus. This is far and away one of the best games ever made.

If I ever get a horse, I'm calling it Agro.

[1605]

The Devil

2009-10-18T12:56:00.002+01:00

[1257]

He has eight legs, has a big black body and lives in my room. I am fucking terrified.

[1258]

Unusual Contents

2009-09-03T12:30:00.005+01:00

[1230]

Last night I went to a gig in The Tap to help fund local monsters Crowd Control's upcoming tour. As usual, they were incredible. This band have only gotten tighter and more aggressive over the past 2 years and every new song is better than the last.

It's a shame that they haven't got more released material. Their split 7" with Mob Rules is fucking great, but it took so long to get done that it was kind of anticlimactic when I got it, because I'd had the songs for so long. They have a new split with the UKs The Hard Way in the works, however, and this has me excited.

I hope tour works out for them, even though Nottingham fell through.

Support was from Sort It Out, who were awesome, Etcha, who did nothing for me, and Loose Nut. It was Loose Nut's first show, and they were great. Jamie posted elsewhere about the raw nerve nature of the music and I can only agree. This is probably going to end up being one of my favourite local bands. I only hope it doesn't fall by the wayside when Crowd Control inevitably blow up.

Overall, this show was great, and it was good to see so many people make an effort to come out to it, despite the shitty weather.

As an aside, I went into the asian market beside the venue, and while browsing through the packs of steamed buns in the freezer, I found one whose ingredients included 'Jizz Powder'. I laughed so hard that I had to leave the shop.

[1259]

Suicidal Maniac

2009-05-27T20:40:00.002+01:00

[2040]

Why Chris Mahon rules:

[2042]

Put the goddamned dog in the basket...

2009-05-26T16:42:00.004+01:00

[1642]

I've talked about this before, but after having a pretty decent day, featuring a reasonable commute, success in work and a palatable lunch, I've been brought low by Facebook, suggesting that I add a friend who died 18 months ago.

I still miss you, bro.

[1653]

Vegan pizza (again)

2009-05-07T10:32:00.006+01:00

[1032]

I'd half eaten it before I managed to compose myself enough to take a photo.

This does not do it any justice whatsoever.

Click to embiggen.

Artichokes on pizza. Hell yeah.

[1038]

Vegan pizza

2009-04-17T17:31:00.003+01:00

[1731]

Last weekend I had my first pizza in ages.

The dough was made from scratch, in the morning, using flour, dried yeast, salt, water and olive oil and left to rise for the day.

The pizza sauce was made from half a chopped red onion a can of chopped tomatoes, some tomato puree and roughly chopped basil.

It was topped with Redwood Foods vegan mozzarella, artichoke hearts, cracked olives, sundried tomato, sliced flatcap mushroom and basil leaves.

It was beyond incredible, I had the whole thing myself, and is the best thing I've eaten in months.

I may update this later with a picture of the pizza, which I only thought to take after eating half of it.

[1742]

Wishes

2009-03-03T13:43:00.003Z

[1345]

Wish the ongoing theme about me wasn't "he's just crazy"

Wish I knew safety,

Wish nothing phased me,

Wish I felt more than just feelings of unrest,

Wish the darkness didn't cloud me,

Wish I wasn't an emotional wreck...

I listened to the latest Blacklisted record at home before work this morning, and then twice more on the drive in. I think the last song on this record is the best thing they've ever written.

[1354]

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

2009-03-02T13:58:00.003Z

[1327]

A couple months ago I watched a film called Johnny Got His Gun. It was an adaptation of an anti war novel by Dalton Trumbo, which I've not read. I'd been meaning to watch it for a long time.

It's about a young man who fought in World War One and was hit by an exploding artillery shell. He woke up in hospital, horribly mutilated, with no arms, no legs, no face, no jaw and no senses except the sense of touch but with his mind fully intact.

The full film is on YouTube in ten parts. The first one can be found here.

This film had a pretty profound effect on me.

[1354]

Quiet reflection

2009-02-11T15:00:00.003Z

[1500]

I'm feeling it.

[1503]

I <3 2 FASH

2009-02-06T16:31:00.006Z

[1632]

Whatever about helping out and providing gear for gigs, I'm going to be running the first show I've actually helped organise at the end of this month.

My Australian homie, Fingers, is coming over here from the UK for a couple of shows with his band, Fashion. The show in Dublin is on in The Lower Deck in Portobello on Saturday the 28th of February 2009, and will also feature Crowd Control, Sheep Dip and Dead Wrong. Door time is 8pm and it's €8 in.

Here's the flier. Thanks to renowned cat murderer, Martin, for the hook up.

I have a couple copies of the new Fashion 7" available at the bargain price of €4.

Tonight will feature BOLT in 3D followed by Metal Karaoke in Fibber Magees.

Peace.

[1704]

Early mornings

2009-01-29T06:50:00.004Z

[0650]

I brought my sister, her fiancé and their adorable kid to the airport this morning for an early flight, and headed straight to work afterwards. I arrived at 0605.

This is definitely the earliest I've been here in a long, long time.

I managed to secure myself an extra 20 minutes asleep this morning by deciding that I would have a shower when I got to work. I picked up some new varieties of Original Source, which I've raved about in an earlier entry, and I brought the Vanilla Milk and Cocoa one with me. I now smell absolutely delicious, like a really clean cake.

Time to do some work.

[0701]

The past reborns the storms

2009-01-29T00:04:00.005Z

[0004]

I've been into music for a pretty long time. Well over ten years. In that time, I've collected heaps of tickets and fliers. I by no means have something from every show I've been to, but in going through it tonight, I've found a bunch of stuff that has brought a massive smile to my face.

For example...

This is the ticket from the Terror show in December 2003, where I broke my arm and spent the following four days in hospital.

This is the ticket from the Hatebreed show in April 2007 where they played Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire from start to finish.

This is the setlist from the final show of the Gorilla Biscuits 20 years tour in 2007

I'm in the process of doing something solid with them so I've got something more lasting.

Tonight has been one of the best in a long time.

[0032]

Three score One score and ten

2009-01-27T13:34:00.005Z

[1335]

This is where I'm going to be when I turn 30.

I booked flights for Chris and me this afternoon. I seriously can't wait.

[1337]

Sick of people - no one's real

2009-01-26T15:37:00.013Z

[2138]

SUICIDE'S AN ALTERNATIVE

I was three years old when this was released.

I don't agree with all the lyrics, but this song rips.

[2158]

I go, I come back

2009-01-26T02:43:00.002Z

[0243]

I wrote a long entry and hated every word in it after I was done.

I'll summarise it in three sentences.

I'm annoyed about way more things than usual.

Booja-booja ginger flavoured Stuff In A Tub is delicious but burny.

It makes me sad that Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's Disease.

[0255]

Foxy lady

2009-01-19T02:35:00.004Z

[0235]

We went to a party in Joe's house the other day. It was a great laugh. I played heaps of Rock Band, which was the first time in a couple months.

On the way home, I saw no less than five foxes running around the streets.

I love stuff like that.

[0239]

Dead technology

2009-01-15T12:11:00.008Z

[1211]

I realise how bizarre this sounds, but I've had several dreams in the last couple months about LaserDisc players. I've never owned one, and haven't seen any LaserDiscs for sale in Ireland since the late 90s. I'm reliably informed by the internet that there have been no new LaserDisc titles produced since 2000.

Anyways, about a month after I had a dream about them, I was in Nottingham and found a number of discs for sale in some second hand music store, and I felt compelled to buy them. I somehow managed to exercise restraint and left the shop empty handed, except for a double LP of War Of The Worlds.

Since then I've had at least two really vivid dreams about buying them.

Today I read that players for what is essentially a dead format are still being made, although there are only 3,000 more units being produced.

In a slightly related article, the last manufacturer of blank VHS tapes officially stopped production at the end of last year.

I wonder sometimes if the entirety of human endeavour will be lost to the future because we choose to record our history and culture on a format that no-one will be able to play.

Last night The Carrier played in Fibbers. The sound for the whole night was amazing, and the atmosphere was really great. The three local support acts really set it off, despite Iano and Nelly both being sick. Dead Wrong handed out copies of their fantastic demo with the artwork consisting of a pair of panels from Preacher, featuring Johnny Lee Wombat.

Cedo ou tard, chega uma hora quando tudo que vocé quer é gritar foda-se pro mundo.

The Carrier were really great. They're a terribly intense band and their live show really puts this across. I love the Boston accent. Leave the car in Harvard Park. Apparently Matt Damon in The Departed is not representative of Bostonians. Who'd have thought?

[1251]

The World Isn't Against You...

2009-01-14T17:24:00.006Z

[1724]

...my dear, it just doesn't care.

I want to be making more of my life than I am. Nobody else is going to do it for me.

I'm going to see The Carrier play tonight. It's bound to be a good show. A review might come later.

[1729]

The ceiling is waiting

2009-01-12T03:12:00.003Z

[0312]

I'm up late.

I ran over a screw somewhere between Parnell St and the Clery's carpark after dropping off the gear for the show tonight. I had to stop a bunch of times to put air in the driver's side back tyre on the way home. On another day, this would have bothered me a lot more than it did.

Cornered played with The Effort, Plagues and Young Wolves tonight. The Effort were very entertaining live, even if their songs don't really light me on fire on record. I really enjoyed Young Wolves tonight, and have felt compelled to listen to A Wilhelm Scream since I've gotten home.

One of the cymbals on Career Suicide seems to be making a strange hissing sound. This may be in my head.

Our handsome devil of a singer is currently laid up being sick as a dog, so we played an instrumental set, including three new songs. I was pretty happy with how it went, although I would still have loved Jon to be there.

This week has not been as bad as I thought it was going to be. That's all I'll say for now.

The Carrier is on this Wednesday in Fibbers on Parnell St. I'll post about that again tomorrow.

This doesn't make much sense. I need to rest.

[0321]

Riot stairs

2009-01-08T23:56:00.005Z

[2355]

So today was long and kind of hard.

I had a reasonable amount of success in work dynamically embedding shockwave objects in webpages. Tomorrow will be the actual test though.

I'm about two hours away from owning a Deadguy shirt. This has me stoked. I first heard Deadguy in 1997 or 1998 on some compilation. I picked up Fixation On A Coworker shortly afterwards.

I later got my hands on Screaming With The Deadguy Quintet and Work Ethic, but I hold a special place in my heart for Fixation...

It's still one of my favourite records, and is going to be 14 years old this year.

I found a link to download the record here. There's a fan MySpace page here, which has a bunch of stuff on it, including scans of the decibel magazine article on the record, from when it was inducted into their hall of fame, in the pictures section.

That's enough for now. Die with your mask on.

[0021]

EDIT

[0221]

Sniped. Fuck you eBay.

[0222]

Frozen corpses

2009-01-08T13:55:00.002Z

[1355]

On the way to work yesterday morning, I saw 7 dead animals on the road. This may be a new record. It contrasted strangely with the winter wonderland feeling that the overnight frost had given the fields I was driving past.

I'm yet to hit an animal on the road, and am thankful for this.

I was driving home late a couple of months ago, and the car in front of me on the road ran over what looked like a rabbit. The car was maybe 20 meters ahead of me and I could see the animal thrashing around in my headlights.

The driver, who was a young woman, had pulled over ahead of me and turned on her hazard warning lights. As I drove past I could see her leaning forward in the seat with her head in her hands, covering her eyes.

I told this story to someone recently, and I didn't really think about how much it affected me until then.

My focus is fucked right now.

[1406]

Time (mis-)spent

2009-01-05T01:33:00.005Z

[0032]

So far tonight I've watched the first 7 episodes of season 5 of Entourage back to back. I did this while sorting out my massive pile of clean laundry.

I love Entourage.

I can't wait for season 6.

[0045]

EDIT

[0406]

13 minutes left in season 5. My brain has fallen to pieces. All my clothes are neatly folded.

[0410]

Nothing gold can stay

2009-01-04T22:00:00.004Z

[2200]

I can't remember the last time I watched The Outsiders.

I'm going to try to find it online now.

[2018]

10 years

2009-01-02T14:24:00.002Z

[1424]

One thing is clear. I can grow a better beard now than then.

[1427]

Blood on the tracks

2008-12-29T23:43:00.005Z

[2343]

Tonight, after dropping Cruise and Robbie K home, while driving through Ballsbridge on the way back into town with Chris and Iano, we saw some guy that had either been hit by, or had fallen under, a car.

He was conscious, but clearly distressed. Some people were administering first aid. Some of them may have been paramedics, but I can't be sure. There was a lot of blood.

I've not really been able to get it out of my mind. I'm pretty sure tomorrow that I'm going to hear on the news that a man died as a result of a road traffic accident in Dublin 4.

I don't really know how to feel about it.

[0027]

An introspective aside

2008-12-17T00:25:00.002Z

[0026]

I'm 29 years old, and I'm not the man I would like to be. I set very high standards for myself, and I just don't live up to them.

I'm vain. I'm unmotivated. I'm jealous. I'm selfish. My pride will be the end of me.

I let myself down, far too often.

I need a new outlet or I might self destruct.

Happy Christmas.

[0030]

Sleeping sickness

2008-12-02T15:23:00.003Z

[1523]

It's not a secret that I have problems sleeping at night. It has been having a cumulatively negative effect on my life, but that's not what this is about.

Last night I went to see The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D in Cineworld. I don't have a rabid Jack Skellington fetish like so many people seem to, but I really enjoy this movie. It's only been a couple of weeks since I last watched it, but I was happy to go again.

The 3D effect was pretty good, and it certainly made the first 10 minutes or so pretty enjoyable. After that though, it all started to go downhill. I started feeling kind of dizzy and couldn't really focus. A couple of minutes after that I pretty much passed out. I have no idea what really happened, but after that I was asleep for the entire duration of the film.

I felt like shit for the rest of the night. I went home and was in bed by 11.

Then I was stuck awake until 4am.

Today has been grey around the edges.

[1541]

Read first, click later

2008-12-01T13:22:00.002Z

[1322]

Today has taught me a valuable lesson. This lesson is as follows...

When presented with a screen asking you to confirm that the information you have entered is correct, before you commit to payment, ACTUALLY confirm that the information you have entered is correct.

The value of this lesson is €20.

I hope whoever owns 0869862206 enjoys their free credit.

[1331]

Rise From Your Grave

2008-11-28T19:57:00.002Z

[1958]

This morning I had to bring my sisters car, which is also the car I've been using for the past two months, down to the garage because the water pump is on the way out in it and needs to be replaced. The mechanic is going to do the timing belt on it at the same time, because it's due to be sorted out. The whole job is quoted at €330, which is alright I supposed, but a bit of a kick in the teeth.

The earliest that the car'll be ready will be Monday, so I was looking forward to having no car again this weekend. That's a total lie, by the way. There's no fucking way that I was looking forward to getting buses and trains and shit. If you live far enough away from your job that commuting there via public transport takes upwards of 2 hours in the morning, and the same again going home, then a car is pretty much a must.

I've been walking past my own car every morning and evening for the past 3 months, feeling bad that it's still not back on the road, and so I was going to be working on getting stuff finished this weekend. I took some time earlier this evening and worked with my dad to get some of the preliminary work done. As it turned out, we were still working in the freezing cold, when the sun had long set, but everything is pretty much finished.

I took her out for a drive earlier, for the first time in over three months. I forgot what it was like to drive a car that doesn't have to be in 5^th gear when going 60^km/_h.

I'm going to organise a service for her tomorrow, and bring her to get the wheel alignment checked in the afternoon. After that, I'll be good to go. I can't wait.

Ceremony on Sunday. Yeayeuh.

[2030]

What's the point in ten years of scars?

2008-11-25T01:44:00.006Z

[0143]

Today was a troublesome day.

I've been up since very early, and now I can't sleep. I had a long and unproductive day in work, only slightly enhanced by this mornings comedic fashion accident. I try not to suffer the persistence of fools, but sometimes I find it extremely difficult. I held my breath and bit my tongue for most of the afternoon, both literally and metaphorically.

I was supposed to do some work on my car when I got in, but it was pretty late, and so I watched the Tony Robinson documentary about how the Earth was shaped by catastrophic collisions instead. It was pretty good, but even there I found something to bitch about. They had this astrophysicist on it who's job it was to shoot at the moon with a billion watt space laser. That's his fucking job. Trying to get the internet to do what I want seems to pale into insignificance beside the majesty of it.

I had some fun with Cindy playing Left 4 Dead after that, but when we finished up my evening went on kind of a downward spiral. I said I was going to bed more than 2 ¹/₂ hours ago, but here I am. Still wide awake and thinking. I don't talk much about my personal life in the public domain, because it IS personal, but right now, I'm very conflicted.

I want to be less bitter.

I want to poison the world.

I don't know which I want more. It's not so long ago that everything was so much simpler.

[0250]

Getting dressed in the dark.

2008-11-24T12:04:00.005Z

[1204]

This morning I got up early to bring my brother in law to the airport on my way to work to save my sister and parents having to get up. I got him there just about in time, and headed off to work.

A couple of hours later I'm sitting in a meeting about network architecture, and I look down and think to myself "Where are the buttons on my shirt gone?"

A cursory inspection revealed them to be on the inside of my shirt. I started laughing out loud, and everyone in the meeting looked at me, so I had to explain that somehow I'd managed to put my shirt on inside out 5 hours before and only just noticed.

It's going to be a long day.

Shower gels that I used this morning that you should also be the one that is using them:

Original Source Lemon & Tea Tree

[1214]

Cleaning up my act.

2008-11-23T02:57:00.006Z

[0257]

Tonight I went to Tesco and had a long walk through the aisles, rather than just getting hummous and tortillas and then leaving. I normally use Jason shower stuff or soaps that I get from Lush and so usually wouldn't even go near the toiletries aisle in Tesco or wherever. I was pleasantly surprised to find a bunch of Original Source shower gels that I haven't tried before.

I like Original Source because every variety is certified as being vegan, but also because they're intensely refreshing. They even say as much on the bottles. So I went crazy...

I'm going to use a different one every day. That dragon fruit and capsicum one is first on the list.

My life is supremely exciting.

[0319]

Rightwingers left exposed

2008-11-18T18:46:00.003Z

[1847]

Found on The Register, but originally sourced from the Lancaster Unity Anti Fascist blog.

Apparently, the entire British Nationial Pary member list was published online today, detailing, amongst other things, the names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of all members up to September 2008.

Data security and privacy are of great concern to me and so I've got mixed feelings about this, although I can't help but smile when I think about members of the UK's Police, armed forces and other supposedly apolitical professions, whos jobs may be in jeopardy because of their political views.

There are some other interesting comments made on the LUAF blog.

I don't really know what else to write about this other than fascist cocks can go and fuck themselves.

Thank you for your time.

[1852]

Deathwish

2008-11-11T15:40:00.003Z

[1540]

Deathwish Records have put out some of my favourite records of the last couple ears and I'm totally excited about some of the releases they have coming up soon.

Yesterday I listened to the Fall 2008 sampler and the Trap Them WYNU live radio set, for pretty much the whole day. I've been looking forward to the new Trap Them record for a while, and judging by the new songs on the live set, it's going to be pretty immense.

The highlights of bands I hadn't really listened to before are New Lows, Lewd Acts, The Carrier, Narrows and United Nations

Cornered are playing the Moshspace 3 year anniversary show in Eamonn Dorans this coming Friday with Forging Friendships, Find A Way, Inflatable Gods and Ciarán Parnell. Here's the poster.

I'm really looking forward to playing at this, and you should all go.

[1553]

Ctrl-a, delete

2008-11-07T17:05:00.002Z

[1706]

As content free as it was, it took me half an hour to write my last entry.

Today I skipped lunch.

Tonight I'm going to a toga party.

I've had a long week in work, but I got lots of stuff completed.

I'm the only person sitting in my office right now.

The Wire is great.

Fuck all this. The day to day events of my life are uninteresting. Eventually I'll have something that's worth talking about that I'm also willing to share.

[1711]

Running theme

2008-10-21T03:12:00.000+01:00

[0312]

Where the fuck is my sleep?

[0313]

Talking about games

2008-10-16T14:34:00.004+01:00

[1434]

I never seem to have a lot of free time these days, so I end up talking about playing games a lot more than I play them. When I do get a chance to play them, they're generally games that I can pick up, play for five or ten minutes and then go and do something else.

Last night I went home early with the intention of spending some time playing Burnout Paradise, Fallout 2, Mass Effect or any of the other myriad games I've spent money on but not played enough. That didn't happen though, and here's why...

After briefly trying the demo for MegaMan 9, I bought the full* game off XBox Live Arcade. Now, I loved MegaMan as a kid, and MegaMan 2 is one of my all time favourite games, but I don't remember any of them being even close to as hard as this is.

I spent HOURS playing it, and I managed to kill ONE of the eight master robots. It made me want to smash my controller, so I played Castle Crashers instead. What an ending.

So, in summary:

FUCK YOU, MEGAMAN 9!

[1447]

* this is open to interpretation

The nature of colour

2008-10-15T00:40:00.003+01:00

[0041]

Anything I write that is remotely poetic feels pretentious.

Tonight on the train home, I dozed off and woke up between stations and outside was completely black, with shadows of stuff on the side of the tracks flying by the window. It was distinctly unnerving, and not just because I wasn't sure if I'd missed my stop or not. I couldn't even tell if we were passing under trees or over water.

This dismal illusion was shattered when we got to the next station.

When I got off the train at Skerries, however, the night sky was curiously blue.

I was thinking about how I was going to say how this made me feel when I reached my front door, realised I hadn't got my keys, couldn't get in the house, my phone was out of battery and no-one would answer the door.

Pale blue horizons and dark blue skies begin to mean less and less when you're stuck outside in the cold.

There is no lesson in this tale.

[0108]

Self restraint

2008-10-14T04:20:00.004+01:00

[0420]

If you think I say sketchy stuff now, you should see some of the things I type into comments, blogs and forum posts that I DON'T post.

[0422]

Classnevin

2008-10-14T00:59:00.003+01:00

[0059]

In alphabetic order, Derry, Fry, Jack and Laura are some of my favourite people in this town. Without them, the last year in Dublin, and this last weekend in particular, would have not been as fantastic as they were.

They don't get as much love as they should.

[0112]

Crayola

2008-10-13T00:06:00.003+01:00

[0006]

I'm slowly but surely fulfilling my one resolution for this year.

I have another couple hours tomorrow. I can't wait. Pictures will eventually follow.

My homies are leaving tomorrow. This visit has gone by too quickly.

[0012]

Dressing up

2008-10-12T04:27:00.004+01:00

[0427]

The Punk Rock Debs was on last night in Boh's bar. It was a great night. Besides the opportunity to get dressed up, which I ALWAYS love doing, it was an opportunity to talk to people that I don't see that often, and to eat vegan cupcakes.

The bands that played were great, especially Complan. It's a shame that I don't know enough of their songs, because the highlight of the set was a cover of The Badge by Poison Idea.

This is my homie Simon and me. He's a handsome devil.

[0452]

Travelling

2008-10-11T03:56:00.004+01:00

[0356]

I had written an immensely long blog entry about my trip to Nottingham with Crowd Control, but I realised that no-one is interested in reading over long descriptions of someone elses fun through badly constructed English, so here's my second attempt.

Nottingham ruled. Tom and Sarah are legends for letting me crash there when my place to stay fell through. We had a blast eating pizza in Stone, listening to nu-metal in the Speak Easy and dancing badly in Rock City. Getting destroyed by fake blood is definitely one of the funniest things that's happened to me in ages.

The gig was great. My hightlights were definitely all of Cold Ones and Cold Snap's sets, Hordes' cover of Wolverine Blues and Crowd Control in general.

Crowd Control are hands down the best band in Ireland right now, and I can't wait to finally get that split.

Everyone who hooked any of us up with anything in Nottingham is fantastic. I had the best time.

Flying across for this show cost next to nothing, and it's the kind of thing that I should do more often.

My next post might be interesting. Don't hold your breath.

[0404]

Distance

2008-10-03T02:18:00.005+01:00

[0218]

The gulfs between me and others seem to grow everyday. Sometimes I feel that I don't make enough of an effort to stop it from happening. Other times I feel like I couldn't care less if they end up as wide as an ocean.

I have nothing but contempt for so many people.

My observations at 2AM are pretty dark.

[0221]

I have sought like Icarus, to fly too high

2008-09-28T19:01:00.004+01:00

[1901]

And every night, I shut my eyes so I don't have to see the light, shining so bright.

I dream about a cloudy sky.

And every night, I shut my eyes but now I've got them open wide.

You've fallen into my hand and now you're burning me.

Now you're burning me.

[1907]

Writer's block

2008-09-27T22:32:00.002+01:00

[2233]

I have lots of things I want to say, but nothing that I want to share.

Listen to The Suicide File

[2235]

Don't Panic

2008-09-21T03:07:00.004+01:00

[0307]

There will come a time in your life when you will ask yourself a series of questions.

Am I happy with who I am?

Am I happy with the people around me

Am I happy with what I am doing?

Am I happy with the way my life is going?

Do I have a life?

Or am I just living?

Do not let these questions restrain or trouble you.

Just point yourself in the direction of your dreams.

Find your strength in the sound and make your transition

Panic are probably better than whatever band you're listening to.

[0311]

Chasing safety

2008-09-14T14:12:00.005+01:00

[1412]

Last night was Ruthie's birthday. We stalled it out to Doran's and had ourselves a decent time. It was a bit too packed for me, so I actually spent most of my night outside. I had me a delicious subway.

Subway is not the same as takeaway.

Paul, Ruthie, Olivia and I left about 1.30 and headed out to Dun Laoghaire to go for a walk along the pier, cos it's one of our favourite things to do. It was pretty nice out there although it was a bit chilly.

There was a fox on the pier. He kept running and hiding in the shadows between the lights and having sneaky glances at us. I love urban foxes.

I dropped everyone home and started making my way back to Skerries.

Because the car I'm using, while my own is out of action, isn't exactly a mean machine, I'm not using the M1 to get home as of late. Because of this, it was about 4.45 by the time I was on the final stretch from Lusk to Skerries.

As I was turning at Blake's Cross I noticed an unmarked Garda car with his lights flashing behind some van. There's plenty of subtle patrols that go along that stretch of road late at night to try to catch people driving stupidly or dangerously.

When I was about 5 or 6 kilometres from Skerries, a car pulls up behind me and follows me pretty closely. I've already had a run in with the law on this particular stretch of road, and I'm in no mood for another, so I'm driving on the conscientious side of safety, going about 70 or 75 in an 80^km/_h zone.

In order to get into Skerries from this road, you have to drive under a railway bridge and then immediately around a roundabout.

I slowed to about 40 going under the bridge, and as soon as I get through, some idiot came driving up my lane onto the roundabout driving the wrong direction. I had to jam on to avoid hitting him.

The guy just continues on his merry way as if there's nothing wrong and goes under the bridge. It's at this point that the car behind me turned on it's blue lights and sped around the roundabout after him.

Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not after you.

[1436]

I'm complicated

2008-09-12T02:02:00.005+01:00

[0202]

I definitely make things worse by staying up and thinking about them.

I went to go-karting today after work. I managed to not have a serious accident. The track was soaking wet, so we were sliding all over the place.

After that I met up with Laura, Laura, Joe and Mags and went to see The Wackness. I really enjoyed it. The soundtrack was incredible.

I should have been hanging out with Jon while I was in the movies, and becuase my brain isn't really working too well I completely forgot about it. Sorry Jon and Becca!

My band, Cornered, are playing our first proper show in about 18 months next thursday. Everyone should come. We're playing support for Deal With It. That alone is going to be intense. Here's a flier.

That's enough introspection and self abuse for one day.

[0212]

Vampirism

2008-09-10T13:47:00.007+01:00

[1347]

I love grapefruit, especially ruby grapefruit, but I find them pretty hard to eat. As a result, I've taken to stabbing a small hole in them, and cutting randomly around the inside before draining them of their delicious life juice, leaving them an empty husk.

I'm a true creature of the night.

[1407]

Audrey Horne

2008-09-01T22:10:00.004+01:00

[2210]

I would give anything to have been in Billy Zane's shoes.

Thanks for the badge, Kayleigh

[2217]

Look the other way...

2008-08-14T17:52:00.005+01:00

[1752]

All I feel like doing these days is sleep. I stopped drinking coffee (and Coke, and tea) again, in order to regain some kind of control over my sleep patterns. So far this week I've been in bed by midnight three times. Waking up is a different story entirely.

August has been a shitty month as far as weather goes, seeing as I just want to go out and skate. The only time the sun seems to be out is when I'm in the office and looking out the window. It's shining right now. I'm pretty much guaranteed that it'll have started raining by the time I get to my car.

It has been, and is going to be, a good month for shows though. Tonight I'm going to go see Career Suicide in The Lower Deck. It promises to be mental. Any videos I've seen of their shows seem pretty crazy. Also, I LOVE The Lower Deck as a venue, despite it's strange layout. I'm not terribly excited about the support bands, besides Ghundi, but you can't win them all.

I've taken the last week of August off so I can properly enjoy the three Outbreak, and the Pulling Teeth, shows.

Cornered wrote another new song over the last two weeks. It's sounding pretty good, and I'm looking forward to playing it at our next gig, which is on September 18^th supporting Deal With It at the start of their euro tour. How exciting. We should be doing a semi-decent recording of one of our new songs to put up on our page next week. I'm really happy that some stuff is finally going on with this band.

Next: Food.
Then: Human pyramids.

[1806]

XXIX

2008-08-05T11:30:00.002+01:00

[1130]

I'm 29 years old today. When I was 21, I used to stress out about getting older, but there's no stopping it. I'm not terribly different now than I was back then, except for the wear and tear, and a nicer beard.

[1139]

Critique

2008-08-01T17:31:00.005+01:00

[1731]

I don't like emotionally investing myself in other people. Being burned has a habit of leaving scars. For me, they show through the difficulty I have in treating the fairer sex as anything other than friends. This bothers me less than you might think. Despite my assertions to the contrary, I most definitely am a people person, and I make friends far more readily than I make enemies.

But it does bother me.

It's hard, trying to be a stoic about things, good and bad, that make me feel like I'm holding my breath, like I'm boiling on the inside.

I wish I could speak my mind all the time, and not just when I'm angry.

[1834]

DARK OMEN

2008-07-21T19:19:00.001+01:00

[1919]

Yesterday I played the last show with Another Day In Hell, screaming hate for the work-every-day life that we're forced into.

Today I'm back in my office, doing what I always seem to be doing.

[1923]

This is how we die...

2008-07-18T14:10:00.007+01:00

It's Another Day In Hell's last show this weekend. I'm not really looking forward to it because I had the best time being in this band and I didn't want it to end. But you know how life goes, it's like a dice roll. It's going to be emotional.

I got the CD back from the replication place a week ago. I'm glad that it arrived in time for the show, so at least there was some kind of record of us as a band.
Getting it, and the shirts, made was enough to prompt me to do something for the Half Shell webstore, so that's finally online. I've got a couple of other things planned for it later in the summer, including the Outbreak shows, late in August, that I'm promoting along with Demented and Red Ranger. More about that later. I should probably start a blog specifically for Half Shell.

CLICK TO ENTER

Every time I visit the Half Shell profile, and the songs there start playing, it surprises me how much I miss Barntown.

So yeah. This weekend is Demented Fest. There's going to be heaps of good acts playing, including Forging Friendships, First Death, Real Talk! and Ciarán Parnell. The Half Shell distro will be there, so there'll be stuff to buy. Lucky you.

My home boy, Will, is coming over from England for this. I'm really looking forward to that because he's absolutely hilarious in a moshpit.

Look Back Records will also have their distro at the show. They recently put out the new First Death EP, and it's well worth picking up. They'll also have copies of the Looking Back zine, which was put together by Iano and Wally, and is well worth a read. If you can't make it to the show, and you should really try, you can get both of these from their webstore which is linked to below in the sweet promo poster for 'Ausgang City'.

Deep breaths...

2008-07-08T09:53:00.007+01:00

[0953]

I finally got around to doing some stuff on the Half Shell Records side of things. I updated the MySpace page and created a new webstore where you can come and give me all your beautiful money. I've put all the Half Shell releases to date in there.

Another Day In Hell's final show is less than a fortnight away. The closer it gets, the unhappier I become. I'm definitely going to be upset on the night. There are some other great bands playing over that weekend aswell. The flier's below. Everyone should go.

Our show on the 20th June with Crowd Control, Frigits and Exploding Birds was amazing. Easily one of the most fun gigs I've ever played. All the bands were great. Crowd Control are currently somewhere in Euroland being phenomenal. If you get a chance to see them, do it.

The last of the shirts that we got made up for the show went the other day. I'm really happy that so many people were interested in getting one, especially those who ordered one from outside of Ireland.

The often delayed ADiH CD went in to be duplicated the other day. It'll have all 7 of the tracks that we recorded on it and should be back in time for the final show. The cover and tray artwork is by the ever awesome Simon Erl. He's currently wandering round the states, being an incredible bum. He's seriously one of the best guys ever. Much love, bro.

Annoyingly, my XBox red ringed last night when I was trying to drive fast into stuff. I've had it since the european launch, so it's gotten a pretty good run, but I think I can still get it repaired free of charge. Here's hoping.

That's all for now.

[1009]

Agony I was taught

2008-07-01T18:22:00.001+01:00

There's very little I can be bothered with.

How quickly we forget...

2008-06-26T13:21:00.002+01:00

[1322]

I was browsing through some old pictures that I'd put up on my MySpace, and looking at the comments that'd been left, and I saw one from a friend that died during the year. I haven't thought about him in a while. It makes me sad that some things can be so easy to forget.

Jude, I miss you bro.

[1325]

I found my way out...

2008-06-18T01:35:00.007+01:00

[0135]

I got called about my car just before I left work on Monday evening, and was told that it wouldn't be ready until tomorrow (which was today). Bad news. That meant that I had to get the bus from town to here again this morning. It wasn't quite as lame as yesterday, but the train from Skerries to the city was straight up terrible.

But I digress. I listened to Turn It Around on the way into town last night to try to get myself psyched for the Comeback Kid show, because I wasn't really feeling it. To my endless surprise, it totally worked. The show was unbelievable. Including the support bands, there was probably about 220 people there. The atmosphere was as good as Another Breath around this time last year, and that's saying a lot.

Ghundi from Galway opened the gig up. I picked up their CD when I was in Galway last, and thought it was pretty good, but I was (correctly) informed that it was a lot better live. The crows was still a little sparse at this time, so it wasn't too packed, but it left plenty of room for the singer to jump off the stage and run around the audience, singing.

Real Talk! were up next. I like these guys, and they get better and better with each show. They played a new song, that I was later told they fucked up (I didn't notice), as well as the songs off their demo. It's full of little anthemic gang vocals that get people pumped. Iano and I managed to shout 'Irish Gee' into the mic at the appropriate moment, which pleased me greatly. There was plenty of indian noises and a massive 'Milton!' shout out during the lead out from the last song. Good times.

The next band, Find A Way haven't played a gig in a good few months. Most of the members play in other hardworking Dublin bands, not least of all the frontman, Zach Golden, who's easily one of the most likable dudes there is. They're a pop punk band, and while this would normally put me off straight away, Zach's vocals aren't the usual american-aping nasal whine that makes me turn my ears off. The crowd got well behind them, and with good reason.

First Death very recently returned from a two week slew of shows in the UK and it's like they came back a different band. They sounded huge and showed an unbelievable amount of energy, especially from the vocalist Chris, who bounded about the place screaming wildly. I've seen First Death a whole bunch of times, and this was easily the best. My highlight was definitely Yo Drama!, from their new (currently MIA) EP 'Ausgang City', even though it was missing the Cowboys From Hell intro. The song started. The place went mental. Awesome.

Comeback Kid were nothing less than amazing. While I'm not the biggest fan, especially of their latest album, their earlier stuff has the potential to make me lose it completely. They played a decently long set, with songs from each of their records. My highlight was definitely Step Ahead, which was pretty much the only song that I wanted to hear, but wasn't sure they'd play, and it set me off. They finished up, unsurprisingly, with Wake The Dead and everyone went crazy. It was the biggest singalong I've ever seen, with what seemed like constant stage dives. Video here. A perfect end, pretty much.

This show was a testament to the state of Dublin hardcore, with great bands, massive crowd participation, everyone having a good time all without pointless fighting or jerks being the toughest guy in the pit.

Definitely one of the best nights of the whole year, only improved by Laura driving me home so I didn't have to sit on the bus.

If that didn't have me in enough of a good mood, I got a call about noon telling me that my car was ready to be collected and that is was only going to cost ²/₃ of what the full price quote was. I'm not stoked on having to pay money, but having to pay less money is always good.

* all pics taken by Jessebash

Bands I'm listening to that you should also be the one that's listening to:

Trapped Under Ice

[0225]

Shaved heads and bushy beards...

2008-06-16T16:28:00.005+01:00

[1628]

I've had a reasonably eventful couple of weeks, but I'm only going to be updating on today.

Because my car is off the road, I had to suffer public transport from Skerries to my job, which is just outside Mulhuddart. Driving this would normally take between 40 and 50 minutes, but it took 2 hours and 8 minutes from when my train left the station in Skerries.

I was going to listen to Comeback Kid on the way, because they're playing tonight in Eamonn Doran's, but I thought better of it and listened to everything that I have by Blacklisted, which is quite a lot. It made the journey more bearable, but only just.

I'm expecting a call at any minute to tell me that my car is fixed.

Panic are still better than whatever band you're listening to.

[1639]

I am 138

2008-05-27T17:43:00.006+01:00

[1743]

The pleasantries are gone.

I'm stripped of all I was.

[1750]

Killing tomorrow...

2008-05-26T18:22:00.007+01:00

[1822]

I picked up Rock Band at the weekend. I've been waiting for this to come out over here since it was released in America.

It's far more fun to play than either Guitar Hero 2 or 3.

I spent most of the weekend playing the extra At The Gates and Metallica songs I downloaded. Definitely time well spent. Playing the songs with 3 others is hilarious. I enjoyed playing Blackened so much that i hit up eBay looking for ...And Justice For All on vinyl.

Kind of on that topic, I'm stoked on a new band that is in the works. Hopefully it's going to be a lot of fun.

I went to see the new Indiana Jones the other day. It was pretty great, although it did lose the plot a bit towards the end. The fight between the greasers and the college jocks was great.

Tonight a bunch of us are going to hit up Tim Burton's Batman in Cineworld. I'm really glad that the cinema is showing old movies on the big screen. Next month is going to be Blade Runner. I actually can't wait for that.

I wish I had seen Turmoil playing in 2000.

That's all for for now.

[1856]

Die Young...

2008-05-23T14:17:00.004+01:00

[1417]

YOUR FUNERAL

Cursed broke up the other day. This upsets me. I'm glad that I saw them when I had the chance.

[1423]

On new songs and apparel...

2008-05-22T20:41:00.013+01:00

[2041]

Cornered practice was last night. We recorded instrumental demo versions of our three latest tracks. Jon wasn't at practice because he was studying for his exams, which are in full flight. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I uploaded one of them, with the provisional title of Barricade, onto our MySpace. People seem to think it's pretty good, so I'm happy about that.

I'm stoked with how much interest there is from people in hearing the rest of our new stuff. We've put a lot of love into it, so I hope it goes down well when it eventually sees the light of day.

I sorted out the Another Day In Hell shirts yesterday. We're going to be getting a limited run of them done, and there won't be a reprint. They should be ready for our second last show, with Crowd Control, on the 28^th of June.

It'll look like something along the lines of what's on the right (click for a biggun [edit: even bigger now, just for Gav)...

They'll be printed on white Fruit Of The Loom heavyweight classics in a bunch of sizes. If you can't make it to the show and want one, hit up the Another Day In Hell MySpace, or email halfshellrecords [at] gmail [dot] com, and we'll see what we can hook up.

There won't be a reprinting of these and once they're gone, they're gone for good.

It's payday tomorrow, so I'm thinking about buying a new PC to celebrate. I didn't really want to buy another PC, because I'd much prefer to have a Mac, but I want to have a solid development machine that I can use from home. I've not really been a complete technology nerd for some time, and I guess I'm ashamed to say that I found some perverse pleasure in reading through technical specification, looking for what I want but not paying too much for it. It's not going to be for gaming rig or anything even close, and the only real stipulation I had was that the motherboard have a HDMI connection so I can plug it into that ridiculous TV I have.

As for size, it'll be a small form factor one, but with a pretty decent AMD X2 and 4 GB RAM. I think the modular power supply is a good idea, partly because it increases airflow and all the benefits that brings along with it, but mostly because I hate trying to get cables in and out of the way. The one I picked out also has 4 native SATA power connectors. I Also went with an SATA hard disk and DVD drive.

I also spent a little while looking for a cheap Mad Catz HDMI adapter for first generation XBox 360s allowing them to output signals in 1080p.

I eventually managed to hook one up from GameStop. Hopefully it'll arrive soon. It'll also free up the component input port on the TV for my Wii. 480p MarioKart, here I come... *ahem*

Finally, Rock Band is out tomorrow. Hell yeah. Sorry Rachel, but you're never going to see me again.

Now I'm done.

Bands I'm listening to that you should also be the one that's listening to:

Spat On

Piece By Piece

[2139]

True evil never dies...

2008-05-16T16:48:00.012+01:00

[1648]

On Wednesday, I saw a trailer for a new zombie movie called Outpost. The twist is that the zombies are the result of a Nazi experiment to make invincible super soldiers, like in Universal Soldier. I'm so excited by the potential for blood and hilarity in this film.

In other movie news involving Nazis, I hear that the new Indiana Jones is less than spectacular. I'll be very disappointed if that's the case. :(

It's been 4 days since I got out of hospital, and I'm still not 100%. It hasn't been the best week. I have an outpatients appointment with urology in about 5 weeks, just to make sure everything is alright, but I think that if it's not all alright by that time, then I'll definitely have noticed.

Band news. Another Day In Hell are coming to an end. This has bummed me out more than I can say, but that's how life goes, unfortunately. We have two final shows coming up, one with Crowd Control, and some unannounced others, on June 28^th before they go on tour, and the other at Demented Fest on July 20^th. ~~There are no posters or fliers or anything for either of these yet, but soon.~~

edit: Still no poster for the June 28^th show, but here's the one for demented fest.

We will have some shirts available at both of these shows. I think they're going to be limited to 50 altogether. The design is by super tight homeboy, Simon Erl. I love that dude.

In other news, Jonathan Boyce (that's his handsome visage on the right), drummer for Another Day In Hell and Forging Friendships, has taken up vocal duties with my other band, Cornered.

I've been playing with Cornered for about 4 years, and it's mostly been long periods of quiet, with brief spells of intense activity. I was the original vocalist for the band for a long time, but we'd decided that we needed to find a dedicated vocalist because I couldn't do it and play guitar at the same time and give both my fullest effort.

We've not played a live show in nearly 18 months, partly because we were writing new material, and it was taking a long time to come together, but mostly because we weren't able to find someone who we wanted to play with us. Jonathan fits the bill, and he's the best dude ever, to top it off.

I've not been doing much with regards to Half Shell right now, for various reasons, none of which are really good enough. I'm going to be running some shows this summer with Demented Promotions and Red Ranger Promotions. I'm not quite sure what the future holds otherwise.

I've been seeing a young lady, Rachel, for the past while too. She doesn't really get enough of a mention, but she lights my fire. That's us on the right when we went down to visit my sister, her husband and their new baby, Roisín.

I've got no pictures of the cute little tyke, but rest assured that she enjoyed vomiting all over my nice shirt.

The baby, I mean.

That's all for now. Time for chinese food and zombies of the SS.

Bands I'm listening to that you should also be the one that's listening to:

[1732]

Like a stone, like a stone...

2008-05-13T01:08:00.004+01:00

[2330]

I've been in hospital for the last week. Woke up on Tuesday in unbelievable agony. It took between then and Thursday night for them to figure out I had a renal stone.

It wasn't a very pleasant experience, so I'm not really into recounting it. Instead, here follows what I did when I wasn't curled up in a ball, fucked up on painkillers, going for scans and not eating for 3 ¹/₂ days.

I finally finished Broken Sword. That was class. Nico is a horrible bitch and isn't very aesthetically pleasing.

I played heaps of Starcraft, which is something I missed out on before. It's still pretty deep as far as strategy games goes.

I watched a couple of documentary movies. The Corporation, Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, Global Dimming and An Inconvenient Truth.

I watched Lords Of Dogtown. I really enjoyed Dogtown and the Z-Boys when I saw it a couple of years ago, and this is was a thoroughly enjoyable movie. Emile Hirsch is great in it. I hope he hasn't destroyed his career with that Speed Racer shit.

It please me greatly that I was visited by my mom everyday, and by heaps of other good dudes and dudettes. Every visit was really appreciated.

I was back in work today, the day after I got out. It wasn't a fun day in work. I guess it'll be a little while before I'm back in fighting form. Then everyone is dead.

You should too.

Albums I'm listening to that you should also be the one that's listening to:

Cursed - One
Slayer - Reign In Blood

[0108]

Five times in the mirror...

2008-05-01T13:26:00.010+01:00

[1715]

This blog is about my most recent excursion to see bands playing. In this case, CURSED.

So last Saturday, I got up at about 6am, got my shit together and headed out towards the airport for an 0845 flight with Aer Arann to Wales. After a quick check in, I got onboard the plane. It's been a while since I'd flown on a turboprop plane before, and I forgot how noisy they are. The flight was just over an hour long, and by 10 I was in Wales, waiting for the bus to Cardiff Central.

I was staying with Glenn, and he came down to meet me at the bus station. We went back to his place and had some laughs, most especially at the National Geographic straight edge documentary. Before I watched it, I would never have suspected that I was in a gang.

We went in to town to kill some time before our train to Newport, so we hit up the cinema to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I'd already seen it a couple of days before, but I really enjoyed it, so had no problem going to see it again. It was actually funnier the second time around.

By the time the movie was finished it was almost time to go, so we headed to the train station. On the way we saw two dudes outside a pub, one holding the other up. The holdee started throwing up, a lot, and got some on the shoes of the holder, at which point he was let go, and when he hit the ground he vomited all over himself. I couldn't stop laughing. This was at about 6 in the evening.

After a 15 minute train ride to Newport and a brief walk, we got to Le Pub. There were plenty of people there but the doors weren't open yet. The show ended up starting late.

Le Pub itself is really nicely laid out, and has a really good sound. The venue is upstairs, and the upstairs is split level, with a bar on the right hand side, and the stage, which is about 2 ¹/₂ feet high, is down a small flight of steps. The area in front of the stage is about 25' wide and about 10' back to where the steps are.

The first band up were The Good Wife. I'd like to be able to say that I like this band. They sounded a bit like These Arms Are Snakes, but without any of the competency. The vocals were strained, the guitars were out of tune, and none of the members seemed that interested in what they were actually playing.

Up next were Gramercy Riffs, who'd been added to the bill in place of Tortuga. I'd heard these about a month before, and was really excited when I found out they'd been added. They play the kind of punk hardcore that I'm really into right now, and, appropriately, the songs are all full of big fat riffs. I picked up their 3 track demo, which has also been released on cassette. They're coming to play in Ireland in late summer, so I'm really looking forward to seeing them again.

Just after they finished playing I turned around and saw my kiwi friend Holly, who was supposed to be in Sweden, at the merch table. Her and another friend, Fingers ( who rules and tattooed my shin for me), were doing the merch for Cursed on the tour. Random. :)

Wales' own Wraith, were up next. They've recently been signed to Reflection Records and have their first 7" out. They play fast and interesting metal tinged hardcore. They're seriously good, especially the drummer, and I recommend getting their 7".

The next band were some ridiculous metal band called Carrion of Vigrid. I watched a couple of songs, but the only thing of note was one of the guitarist hilarious array of hats.

Cursed (myspace) were eventually ready to play at about 2320. I seriously love this band and have done since they released their first record. Soundwise, they have my favourite tone of any band that I listen to, and from the enormous guitar and bass setups that they have, I'm not surprised. I've been to a lot of shows over the last few years, and this was definitely the loudest.

They kicked off and wasted no time in smashing through both new and old songs, including Nineteen Seventy Four, Night Terrors, Head Of The Baptist, Magic Fingers and, the first Cursed song I heard and still my favourite, Bloody Mary. During the set, the singer, Chris, went up to the bar and got a knife, which he used to cut his underwear off. He then taped them back together and stuck them over the face of Thai lady boy on a poster advertising the same.

The guitarist switched to second bass as they finished off the set with Friends In The Music Business. After this blew my head off, it was time to leave, with a giant smile on face and a copy of the latest record under my arm.

It was nearly 2 by the time we got back to Glenns place, and I pretty much passed out straight away. I'm reliably informed that I slept without making any unusual noises.

I was flying back at about 2000 on the sunday, so we had a bit of time to kill. Cue another trip to the cinema. This time we went to see Street Kings, and while it wasn't entirely terrible, it was completely overacted by Keanu Reeves. We ended up leaving before the end, so I could get the bus to the airport.

I landed back in Dublin at around 2200.

It's worth noting that my ears were still ringing on Tuesday.

Thanks Glenn for hooking me up with the place to stay and all.

Bands I'm listening to that you should also be the one that's listening to:

[1802]

Setbacks

2008-04-15T11:56:00.004+01:00

I feel like I'm being constantly held down.

My veins are white hot.

Pleasing myself vs. pleasing others.

2008-03-27T23:34:00.004Z

Joy Of Tech

I need to find the time to get back to the gym. At my best, I used to go about 4 times a week. It's been too long since I've done that.

Sverige är nummer ett (no pictures yet)

2008-03-24T15:12:00.006Z

Saturday morning, Wally and I made our way from the Glasnevin party house to Dublin airport to begin our fun weekend adventure. Our final destination is just outside Helsingborg, in Sweden, but our 0645 flight was to Copenhagen, in Denmark.

Being the well prepared scouts we are, we had no idea what we were doing when we arrived at the airport, so after a little investigation, we jumped on a train, across the sea, to Helsingborg, via Malmö. Simon met us at the train station, and a quick bus ride later, we were out at the house that Simon, Joanna, Fingers and Holly share.

The first day was spent chilling out, so we watched some movies, went for a long walk along the beach in the freezing cold, and had pasta puttanesca. It was rad. Seeing as I was tired, I pretty much just passed out.

On the second day we decided to go for a shopping trip, so we got up decently early, visited a bunch of ridiculous superstores, bought some vegan fast food and stole some saws from outside a hardware store. We missed our bus on the way back, but it was only a connection to get us to another bus, so we walked along the freeway til we reached the bus stop. We chilled out in the evening, watching Blade II and Blade Trinity. Once again, I passed out pretty quickly. I'm told I snore a lot.

Because I snore, and fall into practical unconciousness when I'm really tired, I woke up with cocks drawn all over me. Simon was definitely the culprit. Revenge was mine in the form of a giant snowball smashed at him while he was asleep.

Monday was tattoo day. Laura went first, getting her shin completed by Simon in about 3 ¹/₂ hours.

Once Simon and Laura were done, we got started, and completed the shin in about 4 ¹/₂ hours. It's pretty big, going from my ankle to just under my kneecap, and wrapping around to the piece on my calf. There's some room around the top right and left of the piece for a little something later on, but the piece is done for now.

After a couple hours recovery and some dinner, that I dropped a cushion in, I decided that I was going to have to get my chest finished. It took about 2 hours, and it was fucking torture. I don't really remember too much of the last hour, and barely managed to get into bed once it was done.

I woke up in the middle of the night, absolutely zombified. It was the weirdest shit ever. Outside was covered in snow, and it was still coming down hard. I'd also just had a fucked up dream about trying to learn krav maga. My brain was fried.

We all woke up early today, because Simon and Jo had to head into Malmö for tattoo appointments. We left them in the tattoo parlour (which was aaaawesome) and headed back in to Malmö central to get some eats. We wandered around for a bit after that, but both Laura and I were feeling pretty rough still, so we headed home.

We're heading back tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to coming home, because I have the best time hanging out with these dudes. Our flights not too early, but we have to get back to Copenhagen for it, so I think we're going to be on the road about 0530.

Vegan pizza will be on the way shortly. Sweden is number one.

The recent past...

2008-03-24T08:17:00.003Z

It's been a while since I've made any kind of post about what I've been up to. So here goes.

I finally got myself a new car to replace my poor dead 106. After a little looking, I picked up a 98 Nissan Pulsar, which is basically just the Japanese version of the Almera. After my last car, and the replacement that I had, the difference is dramatic. It has a beverage holder.

I've not got any pics of it here, but I'll update the blog when I eventually get home.

Last weekend, I spent some quality time with my homies from First Death, Forging Friendships and Another Day In Hell in the UK, playing a couple of shows. The guys in First Death and Forging Friendships went across on the Thursday night on the ferry in the Lee's car and in the FD van. Downtown Lee Brown and I had a flight booked for the next day.

I spent the night burning and printing up one hundred numbered ADiH 3 track sampler demos. I started about midnight, and it took about 9 full hours, so I go abolutely no sleep. My dad dropped me up to the airport and I met up with Lee. After a short flight, and two train rides, we arrived in Bury St. Edmunds for the first show.

All three bands were playing in The Old Maltings with Almost Home, Think Again! and Storm And Stress. There weren't too many people at this show, but it was a whole lot of fun, and I think it was one of the better shows we've played. After the gig, we all bailed into our Travelodge. I was so tired from the night before that I just passed out (lying across the pillows) when we finally got into the room.

The Travelodge itself was halfway between Bury and Colchester, where our show was the next day. We only had three triple rooms booked, with thirteen people to get in, so we ended up sneaking in in shifts.

The Travelodge had a Little Chef attached to it, so the next morning, we all went for breakfast and I hooked myself up with some sweet Linda McCartney sausages, mushrooms and beans. Om nom nom.

On the Saturday, Another Day In Hell were playing on the first day of From The Heart. It was a pretty good set, but I managed to fuck up at least one bit of one of our songs, especially our newest one. The rest of the show was a lot of fun, with Special Move, Last Witness and Teenage Lust being the best of the bunch.

The next day of From The Heart was also pretty good, with Forging Friendships and First Death putting in class performances. First Death were one of the best bands of the whole weekend. Other highlights of the day were Get Fucking Dead and Jailbait.

Lee and I'd decided that we were going to get the ferry back with the other dudes, so we had to get up way early to get our stuff together to leave. After a sweet 9 hour drive, involving headpunches, ball games, water fights, Nintendo and van mosh, we arrived at Holyhead and got the ferry back to Dublin.

This post is coming from Sweden. The blog about this trip'll come pretty soon.

Here it comes again, that familiar feeling...

2008-03-20T13:49:00.007Z

Sometimes I think that I really don't do enough with my life. I try to make meaningful use of my time, but I can't shake the thought.

Read Garfield Minus Garfield.

My God, it's full of stars...

2008-03-19T14:31:00.001Z

Another sad day.

Other news coming later.

Late post

2008-03-17T23:56:00.003Z

Just arrived back in my house after being in the UK for a few days with Another Day In Hell, where we played some shows with First Death and Forging Friendships. I'm pretty tired now so I'll post a proper account of the trip soon.

Also, it was my girlfriend's birthday while I was away, and I missed it. Sorry, Rach. x

25% off

2008-03-05T11:53:00.001Z

The first quarter of the year is nearly gone, and I still haven't gotten tattooed. This will hopefully be rectified dramatically on my trip to Sweden.

A proper update will come soon.

Old School

2008-02-19T11:46:00.013Z

Last night, on the way home from Another Day In Hell practice, Chris and I listened to highlights from Beneath The Remains, Chaos A.D. and Roots (all by Sepultura, in case you didn't know). When I was at home the other day, I listened to Beneath The Remains and Arise from start to finish. This is something I have not done in quite some time.

Sepultura were such a good band until Max Cavalera left. I've not listened to any of the stuff they've released since then, but I don't really hold out much hope for it, although there's a new album coming in 2008 apparantly.

Anyways, while listening, it became apparent to me the impact that both this band and early Machine Head has had on the music that I've written over the last few years, and, as a direct consequence of this, on my life in general. There are others who'd probably disagree, but I definitely don't think this is a bad thing. As a result, I've decided that this weeks listening is going to heavily feature bands that I used to listen to all the time when I was 15 and 16.

In any case, practice last night was great. Zach was supposed to be in work til 8, but got off at about 7.30, so before he got there we worked on some bits and pieces that may or may not come to anything, but after he arrived we got down to business and hammered out a new song that I'm pretty sure is going to be my favourite once we get it all nailed down.

We're DIY. Ha ha ha.

Because it's not quite ready, we won't be playing it at our next show, which is this Thursday the 21^st of February, in Eamonn Dorans. It's supporting Los Mendozas and The Mingers with Only Fumes And Corpses and one of my boy Zach's other bands, Find A Way. It's going to be a good time. Doors are at 7.30pm and you can get in and kick people in the face for a measly €7.

Flier on the left.

Come and ruin the other people's lives.

I'm finished plugging now.

After practice, Chris, Zach and I hit up Tin-Tins on Baggot St. for some sweet eats and solid laughs. On the way home, I drove through some of the heaviest fog that I've ever seen. I could see maybe 2 feet up the road in front of me. 15 ^km/_h for about 8km. That's not to say that everyone else on the road was taking the same precautions, and there were cars going past us a LOT faster than we were going. It's no wonder there are so many road deaths in this country.

It was still foggy this morning when I was on the way to work, but it was much prettier out. I drive the back-roads to Blanchardstown from Skerries, and it was like a winter wonderland. I would have taken a photo if I wasn't too busy trying to survive.

Bands I'm listening to that you should also be the one that's listening to:

Machine Head - The More Things Change
Sepultura - Chaos A.D.

Impulse

2008-02-12T17:36:00.000Z

I've been playing Guitar Hero III now since it was released on the XBox 360 in Europe, and I'm pretty good.

I've completed the game on a couple of difficulties, played through the co-op campaign, unlocked every song in it, gotten 5 stars in plenty, and even 5 gold stars in a couple, and had hours and hours of fun doing it.

I still haven't managed to finish the 'expert' campaign because Beat The Devil, featuring the ridiculous battle mode, is actually beyond me. Neither have I bested Through The Fire And The Flames, although I have managed to get about 78% of the way through the songs and gotten the 3x Star Power achievement.

But anyway, I'm pretty good.

My brother, on the other hand, is INHUMAN. Every time we play he destroys me at the game. Last night was the worst thrashing yet. I could partially blame this on a slightly faulty controller (the red fret is a little unreliable), but I'm not one for excusing my own shortcomings, especially when in the presence of a Golden God. He had scores that were THREE times mine. 380 note streaks. 99% of notes hit.

He is a freak, although he can't beat the devil either.

I can't wait until we get to play Rock Band, especially considering that drums is actually what he loves the most...

xkcd and it's place in my life

2008-02-11T14:46:00.001Z

I'm still finding identity with stuff I read on the internet, but none more so than what's in xkcd. Sometimes, I wish that I didn't, because what's in there doesn't always make me feel good. The one above does though, because I've been doing it for a long time.

I've spent the last weekend doing stuff with my friends that I love to do. Hanging out and organising shows, this time for a couple of bands from England and Wales. I got to come alive for another 25 minutes on Saturday afternoon. It was the best time yet.

In about a month, I'll be heading to England to play my first shows outside of Ireland. I'm looking forward to that. The week after, I'm going to Sweden via Denmark to hang out with my boy Simon and eat good food and maybe get tattooed.

On occasion, life is alright.

Augmentin' my life.

2008-01-31T11:45:00.000Z

I've been sick for the last couple of weeks. I had a bit of a cough developing since the week after new years, but I didn't really do anything about it. I took the morning off work yesterday and went to the doctor. He told me I have a chest infection, gave me a prescription for some giant pills, gave me a cert for a couple days off work and took €60. 8 minutes, from start to finish.

I'm informed that the antibiotics, Augmentin, are amazing at fixing this kind of being sick, but that they kick the shit out of you while they do it. Not terribly excited for the violence, but I really do need to be able to finish a sentence without coughing up part of my insides.

Time to get back to talking about my car. When my dad went down to the garage to get the car off them (he would be towing it obviously), they hadn't put the broken gearbox back in the car, but left it on the passenger seat instead. Upon towing it up the road and taking the first corner, both the front wheels bent outwards. My dad said that they hadn't reconnected the suspension rod or something of that nature. It damaged the wings on both sides of the car. They eventually got it up the road to my house. It's outside now, looking forlorn. I'm completely gutted.

On Tuesday night, I went to see Henry Rollins do a spoken word show. He talked and joked for three hours, non stop. I believe he's my favourite person on the whole planet. His Christopher Walken impression made me laugh harder than I have for months.

Time to get out of bed.

Continuing coincidence

2008-01-27T16:02:00.000Z

So I'm watching 2010, and just thought I'd check out the weekly webcomics roundup on Joystiq, and found this comic on the left. How ususual...

Every day I walk the same way home

2008-01-27T12:54:00.000Z

Nothing changes, nothing improves.

My already negative outlook is on a downward spiral. It amazes me that I can find solace in comparing events in, and facets of, my life to shit I read on the internet.

Time for an example, with a quick explanatory aside!

The image on the left is single panel from the actual comic, which can be found by clicking the link. Rather than stealing the artists bandwidth, and per display advertising revenue, you should visit his site. I found it decently amusing.

Anyways, when I read this one it pissed me off, because, surprise surprise, my car is fucked. Not only that, but it's fucked enough that I don't think it's economically viable to get it repaired.

I was quoted at €1100 to get a second hand gearbox installed in the car, including labour. That doesn't include whatever it'll cost to get what I actually sent the car in for fixed. That's more than I paid for the car, and in the year that i had it, I'd probably spent that much again on getting bits and pieces of it sorted out and fixed.

This bums me out. If you know me, you know I love my little car, but I guess it's time to move on and get a new one. I might even break out of character and use it to mac on ladies.

I went to see Walk Hard last night, with Panda. He'd already seen it, but he enjoyed it so much that he wanted to go again. I'm glad, cos two nights in a row of going to the cinema and asking for "one please" would probably have caused me endless distress. It was a pretty entertaining anyways, and I'd definitely recommend it.

I wasn't sure about going to see it, but I had my iTunes on random during the day and Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt came on. That kind of convinced me. Hurray for being a goth.

While I was looking for an image of the poster, I found the picture on the left. It's unspoken subtleties like this that make Walk Hard a good comedy.

The theatrical trailer for John Rambo was also shown before the film. I'm excited for that. February 22nd can't come fast enough.

After the movie was done we bailed up to Eamonn Doran's. It's pretty much the only place where I get to hang out with some people that I like to hang out with. After last night, I won't be going back unless it's for a gig. It's not like I had a particularly terrible time, but I don't feel comfortable looking around and feeling nothing but contempt for practically everyone I can see. I'm not referring to the people I was talking to last night, because you're the reason I went in the first place.

It's just everyone else.

Big thanks to Derry for bringing me home. I couldn't have faced the Nitelink.

Imagine the faces of strangers exploding...

2008-01-21T18:35:00.001Z

Time for some more hate.

Valentine's day approaches fast. I want to choke every smiling couple I see on chocolate hearts, inexpertly wrapped in red foil. Sorry if you like me and this includes you. Having spent some time thinking on it, it strikes me that I'd probably rather die alone than put myself in the firing line again. Being non-specifically bitter is a lot easier than I thought it'd be.

It's hard for me to trust anyone,
and that's what hurts the most.
I've got a heart that I can't open,
and fist that I keep closed

Moving on.

We, Another Day In Hell, played a show last Saturday with Arcada, Heathers and Soldiers Take Half. It was some of the most fun I've had yet this year. We played a new song and busted out a cover that we're probably not going to play again, no matter how much we're asked. I'm sorry if you missed it.

We also got the prospective artwork back for our CD from the amazing Simon Edge. It's looking good. It'll be getting released on Half Shell as soon as we have Blacklisted out of the way. I'm looking forward to finally having it done, considering how long it's been since we recorded the songs.

The show we were going to be playing on February 14^th has been canceled, but the all ages in Greystones on the 9^th is still going ahead. We might have another gig on the 7^th, and possibly some stuff at the start of March, before we head to the UK for the shows in Bury St. Edmonds and Colchester.

Other news. I found out today that it's going to cost me a lot more than €1,000 to get my car fixed. I don't know if it's worth it to keep it alive, when something else might go wrong. It's distressing. I love my little car. Apparantly I need something black, with racing stripes. I'm not so sure I agree.

Anyways. Blacklisted in two days. I'm trying to remain excited, but I'm just getting worried about it at this point. If this one doesn't go well, we'll have to evaluate how viable it is for us to put on these bigger shows.

Bands I'm listening to that you should also be the one that's listening to:

Panic

Slipped gears

2008-01-16T10:10:00.000Z

Well, shit. I got into my car to drive it down the road to the garage, got to the turn coming out of my estate and the clutch went.

It's at the side of the road now, not going anywhere, waiting for the dudes from the garage to come and tow it off. I'm stuck here until they arrive, and it's been nearly an hour now, and then I have to leave to go to work. It's a good job I'm not incredibly busy right now. *sigh*

I'm definitely not looking forward to the bill for this one.

How very frustrating.

Bands I'm listening to that you should also be the one that's listening to:

Outbreak

Initial D

2008-01-16T08:44:00.000Z

So yesterday, I drove to work in the car I have for the next week or so, a Subaru Vivio. Here it is...

This mean machine is fully loaded with a 658cc engine and can go 0-60 in ∞ seconds. Driving in yesterday I managed to coax it up to a bone shattering 75^km/_h, or just under 50^mp/_h. While this means no driving on the motorway for me, I'm not terribly bothered. It's very light on the clutch, and either has power steering or is so light that the wheel can be turned with no effort.

While it's definitely a step down the automotive ladder from my own car, which I love and love to drive, I'm still glad to have it available to me.

There's nothing I'd rather do less in the morning than share my air with people I don't know, for more than 2 hours, probably while being forced to stand, just so I can go to work.

On that note, I'm bringing my car down to the garage to get repaired now. I wonder how much it'll cost me...

Deathproof

2008-01-14T23:37:00.000Z

So my car has been acting funny for the last month or so. My fan belt was slipping a little, and could probably have done with replacing. The oil light started flashing on the other week, but I checked the oil level, and it was fine. Last Wednesday, I started finding it hard to put the car into gear, or if I applied the clutch when braking the car would sometimes slip out of gear. This worries me, so I'm not driving it for a while, until I get it into a garage to get it serviced. This'll be this coming Wednesday.

In the interim, I've had no car.

Laura and Derry drove out to get me on Friday, for which I'm hugely grateful, even though I wasn't ready when they got here. Not being in the driving seat is very, very weird, by the way. I kept looking for mirrors that weren't there to see what was behind me.

After that, I spent hours and hours and hours on buses for the rest of the weekend. I stayed in the party house on Friday night (for which I'm also very grateful) so I had to make the trip back to Skerries from Glasnevin on Saturday afternoon. It took 2 ¹/₂ hours. I was heading out for Dee's birthday on Saturday night (happy birthday again), and the bus back in took another 90 minutes. The nitelink home was just over another hour.

On Sunday, I spent 3 ¹/₂ hours on buses in order to go watch a movie, which was well worth it.

Today was the worst, cos I had to go to work. I was up for work about 5, which sucked on its own, and got a train just before 7. Even though I went straight from train to bus to office, with very little waiting around, I still didn't get there til 9.30am. It was marginally better getting home, but I was still surrounded by people with no regard for anyone else's personal space, and I eventually got home about 9pm.

So yeah. Fuck public transport.

With this in mind, I'm more than appreciative of the lend of the car, a '95 Subaru Vivio, I got from my sister's boyfriend for the next week, while mine is getting repaired or what have you. Driving makes my life so much simpler.

Hopefully my own car will be back on the road for the trip up to Belfast for Blacklisted, Soul Control, Shipwreck and Crowd Control next Thursday. Next Thursday being the day after next Wednesday. Next Wednesday being the show that we're putting on in Eamonn Doran's. You should go to it.

I sound like a scratched record. Back and forth, back and forth.

Bands I'm listening to that you should also be the one that's listening to:

Suck on that, Dr. Phil.

2008-01-11T13:38:00.000Z

This blog is about Another Day In Hell.

We had our first proper practice in almost 2 months last night. Due to me being an idiot, and not bringing Jon's snare or cymbals with me to work yesterday morning, I had to drive back to Skerries to pick them up, then back into town. Thanks to amazing traffic, I didn't get there til 7.20, meaning that I missed out on 2 hours of the practice and because I had the drums, it pretty much meant that the others couldn't do anything either.

Once we got set up, we blasted through the set once to warm up, and then got down to writing a new song. I'm pretty pleased with the result. We'll be playing it at our next show. Lyrics are on the MySpace

On that note, we were supposed to be playing next Wednesday, but the show was canceled before it even got organised properly. However, we've been asked to play next Saturday, the 19^th, in Eamonn Dorans with Arcada, Soldiers Take Half and Heathers. Flier below. I can't say enough good things about Soldiers Take Half, and an opportunity to see them should never be missed.

Our next show after that is the 9^th of February, supporting Save Your Breath and All Or Nothing, along with Nine IX Lives, Veteran and our real tight homies in Find A Way, fronted by the ubiquitous Zach Golden.

We've also been asked to play the Demented 2^nd anniversary show, on Valentines night, which I'm totally stoked about cos MacKell is a good dude and has done so much for Dublin Bay hardcore scene. More details on this show to come later.

We should have another practice before Saturday's show, and I'm really looking forward to it. I've never been happier with how things are going.

In case you missed all those links...

I do my best work at night

2008-01-05T06:37:00.000Z

I find it hard to be introspective and thoughtful when it's bright outside. The creatures of the night, what beautiful music they make. Because my moody goth powers are at their weakest right now, I'm going to make a post about love. So here goes...

I love Guitar Hero.

Last night, we converged on Lee's place to play Guitar Hero III for a couple hours. It's pretty much the only game that I'm happy to continuously play or watch without getting bored. The guitars were being passed around and there was much comedy, thanks mostly to Stephen MacKell, who can't see the difference between Rocky Balboa and Rocky And Bullwinkle. A good time seems to have been had by all. I managed to "Beat The Devil" on hard. It's a lot easier than doing it on expert, which I've been trying to do for more than a week, but is still pretty tough.

I personally think that battle mode is a load of shit and is a fundamentally broken game mode, so the only reason, besides gamerscore and achievements to put yourself through this torture is to unlock the phenomenal 3275 note monster that is Through The Fire And The Flames by Dragonforce.

It's far and away the most difficult song in the game, but is also one of the most fun to play. Last night, I had my best showing to date, managing to get 79% of the way through the 8 minutes of finger gymnastics before failing. I will destroy it soon. Then I can go back to working on getting 5 gold stars for every song in the easy campaign.

Bands I'm listening to that you should also be the one that's listening to:

Graf Orlock