Revisiting Instagram - 2012

Since we are reaching the end of 2019, time to step back in time over  the last past seven years, through my old instagram account archive.

First Year 2012

Instagram 2012

2013

Instagram 2013

2014

Instagram 2014

2015

Instagram 2015

2016

Instagram 2016

2017

Instagram 2017

2018

No Instagram

My 5 best gigs

Coming back from the point after the legend that is Robert Plant

1. Franz Ferdinand in Dolans

magical
 

2. In Rainbows - Radiohead - Marlay Park
Opening double rainbow greeting

3. Robert Plant The point 2018
incredible, giving in to the public/exchange

Plus few months later Robert Plant SavingGrace

4. Ham Sandwich in Dolans
high energy, vocal

5. Tryo -
feel good

Special mention:
- Girl Band in Bourkes, une baffe
- Swimming Pool convert in Grenoble

What am I listening to

I have become over the years a massive fan of the podcast format in general, sometimes binging all day long on a particular show.

For me it all started, as I wanted to catch up with some French Radio Show when I moved to Ireland, in particular there was two radio shows I would listen religiously, both now available in podcast.

• Mauvais Genre on France Culture.
• Le Masque et la plume sur France Inter - with more interest on the cinema related one, I usually skip the Theater.

The Podcast I enjoy right now [August 2019]

• NPR Hidden Brain
• NPR Planet Money
• Freakonomics
• Revisionist History
• Imaginary Word
• Thinking Allowed
• 99% Invisible

BBC - online radio shows

• Mary Ann Hobbes (show + recommends )
• Jarvis Cocker

Radio Plays

• Damon Runyion Theatre
• X minus one 

On radio dramas, the podcast Imaginary Worlds had an interesting episode about the history of those.

Audiobooks

• Mostly from archive.org, old classics like Jules Vernes or Dickens.

Post strongly inspired by Creme De Citron , so what about you ?

My job way back in 1983

The Computer Chronicles - Microchip Technology (1983)

Post Valentine day - mood

Charlotte Gainsbourg - Deadly Valentine (Official Music Video)

Vimeo videos Feb 2019

Few videos from Vimeo.

The Coast

The Coast from NRS Films on Vimeo.


Memories of Paintings

Memories of Paintings from Thomas Blanchard on Vimeo.


The reinvention of Normal:

THE REINVENTION OF NORMAL from Liam Saint-Pierre on Vimeo.

50 things that made my year 2018

In no specific-order.

• Car-less easy commute. Walk to work everyday.
• Collecting leaves with my daughter on the way back from work.
• A week in Portugal - thanks to my wife.
• Book: Diane Keaton autobiography.
• My new job, back to digital physical design.
• Travelling to Prague.
• Few days on Valentia Island.
• A night in the Bowery watching Electric Swing Circus with the wife.
• Dining at King Citric (Howth).
• Building lego sets with the little one.
• Finding my old lego figurines.
• Going to Deer Park with a bike trailer.
• Migrating my geekier website from Jekyll to Pelican.
• The Game Alto Odyssey
• Completing all challenges on Temple Run 2.
• Pantos ( Tivoly and Gaite )
• Finding my daughter flourishing with the new montessori.
• The daughter starting school ( well montessorri )
• Family christmas kindle.
• Token pinball arena.
• Dublin Zoo Wild Lights ( night time at the zoo)
• Cooking from Jamie Oliver book ( Five Ingredients, and Ministry of Food )
• Cutting pumpkins for Halloween.
• Bray walk, and slots.
• A first visit to Tayto Park.
• Limerick winning the All Ireland in Hurling ( finally ).
• Ireland rugby team win over the All Blacks.
• France soccer team winning the world cup.
• Bundoran adventure park.
• Playing on the beach in donegal.
• Finding a lego figurine dressed up as a brick - oh the irony, and one as a french man.
• Trojan academy free play ( dressed up as a lion )
• Building wooden train tracks.
• Solving jigsaw
• Hole in the wall beach ( Howth ).
• Robert Plant in concert.
• Books: "Mythos" by Stephen Fry and "I found my tribe"
• Completing my 2018 book challenge - beating my target of 45 by 3 books.
• Tall tower building (duplos)
• Reading night-time stories ( Enid Blyton, Sven Nordqvist ...)
• Rick and Morty.
• Catching up again with my talented American composer friend.
• Finger painting.
• Dublin Zoo.
• Snowed-in in Dublin.
• Dinosaurs (The Ambassador )
• Auvergne ski resort ( Super Besse ), building a snowman.
• Old Carousel in Vichy (France).
• One year married.
• Playmobil advent calendar.

Books I read in 2018

Highlights:

• Mythos by Stephen Fry. I enjoy rediscovering the greek mythology.
• One Piece: Drawn to it just by curiosity to see what the fuss was all about, much better than I thought it would be.
• Then Again by Diane Keaton, sincere and inspiring.

2018 - Goodreads Reading challenge
So I read 48 of 45 books in 2018.

Spring clean - reboot

With the new limitations on Flickr free accounts ( no more than 1K photos ),  I am taking the opportunity to clean out old posts, and hopefully reboot that somehow half dormant blog....

Duplo Robots build

Today build robots.... nice one with ladybird faces....

And discovering that Megablocks are Duplo compatible.... 

On abandoning facebook

I am no longer on Facebook, this is not recent or new, I took the leap 2 years ago.

I had grown increasingly dissatisfied with the social network, and by the time I was wasting scrolling newsfeed.
No regret about the decision, the only feature I had to find an alternative is the ability to keep in touch with some people, especially since I move abroad and to a different city, in other word going back the old fashioned way: use email, shockingly call directly using my phone.

I want to discuss here the strategy I have been using.

First, not all acquaintance are equal, we get closer to some and disconnect ed to others, and those relations keep evolving over time.

Leaving Facebook forces you to sort out this, and prioritize the relationship you value and want to preserve, and the one you can do without, and can easily prune out.

Now I have few categories, two sometimes overlapping

1. Work and colleagues relationship
All work-related connection has been moved and is staying exclusively on Linkedin. The platform is great to stay in touch with colleague, industry progress and jobs opportunities, without too much of the un-wanted noise. I  have found noisier and noisier content appearing in the last two years, but careful use of the unfollow feature is helping to keep it under control.

2. Family and friends
Email, messaging, Skype, phone, or even better meeting directly face to face.
I am not short of families gathering on the Irish side, for the people abroad it does require more voluntary effort - and I need to improve on that.
I have setup shared photo albums, so they can be easily accessed by my family abroad.
In the end, I found that I do need to schedule a time for the phone call or meetup, allowing a dedicated time for exchange is what works for me best.

3. Acquaintances, toxic relationship, old flames...

Simply put, it is cut off from all social network. I may still have their contact details somewhere.
If I happen to cross the path of old acquaintances, I happily say hi, and exchange a few moments... they usually turn out to be happy fortuitous events.
For the rest, I am much happier without those crossing my mind either physically or virtually.

I would encourage anybody to read Cal Newport articles on this subject.

Update: 

• Tim Harford post on the subject :
  http://timharford.com/2019/02/how-behavioural-economics-helped-me-kick-my-smartphone-addiction/

Update: June 2019

• Following this, I also deleted my Twitter, Instagram accounts

Update: October 2019

• Not missing FB or twitter, but I decided to reactivate an Instagram account for a photo a day project. To ensure I don't waste too much time on the app, I have setup a 10 minutes limit per day (using Android Digital WellBeing setting), so that is 10 minute a day to do the picture and upload.

Update: January 2020
An interesting video from Melanie Murphy

Update: June 2020

My Instagram usage, increased again, so I have deleted the account for good this time.

Update: August 2021

• Re-activated a new twitter account so I could follow my kid school twitter account and the cycle bus information. No followers and limiting following to below 90 people. Not installed on my phone, only on my personal computer, Screen Time limited to 5 minutes everyday.
• Activated new instagram account, only on phone, with screen time limit of 10 minutes... very unsure about that, but it allows me to follow the wife...
• What's App usage has increased but it is replacing email, SMS, Skype and phone call, so no complain.
• Installed Signal on phone.

Update: July 2024

• Completely deactivated Twitter, as the things is getting weirder and stranger since it has been renamed X. 
• I am on mastodon (@tofeire@mastodon.ie) but rarely use it, also on reddit and stackoverflow.
  
• Facebook is back because of some daughter activities which only use FB, only on computer with daily time limit of 5 minutes activated. Will accept connection if I know you, however I don't post and don't use it. Not installed on Phone
• Deactivated then Activated new Instagram account, only on computer, with daily screen time limit of 5 minutes... very unsure about that, but it allows me to follow the wife. I actually using this blog to post pictures now.

Engineering disaster

Not sure what happened after the building phase ...

Engineering disaster

Looking back at 2017

Somebody started walking, just in time to multiple visit the zoos and walk down the aisle with its parents... busy  year which flew so fast....Another busy year is gone

Pram nature walk and birdies

And a resolution for 2018 is: Do only One Thing At A Time.


PS: I would highly recommend this website: https://www.futureme.org/
to send yourself a reminder in a year time of your resolution / objective for the year.
I have been using myself for the past 6 years, a good reminder of sometime broken aspiration, and at other time fulfilled propheices.

Lego nostalgia

Just discovered this on Youtube...

The LEGO classic space 6929 Star Fleet Voyager review! A 1981 set!



That was one the very first set I got as a kid, and that is still in my attic.

Links:
BrinkLink

An interesting girly reading challenge

I have a long time goal of reading over 1000 books, and this year I finally exceeded my Goodreads yearly challenge - so far 30 books over the initial goal of 24, with a little help from my daughter bedtime stories reading.

I also, re-kindled with the television show: Gilmore Girls, thanks to Netflix, so when I discovered the Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge, it turns to be the perfect way to enhance my initial dare and combine various interests of mine.

So thanks to Patrick Lenton for compiling this list of all 337 books:


1) 1984 by George Orwell
2.) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3.) Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
4.) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
5.) An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
6.) Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
7.) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
8.) Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
9.) Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
10.) The Art of Fiction by Henry James
11.) The Art of War by Sun Tzu
12.) As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
13.) Atonement by Ian McEwan
14.) Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
15.) The Awakening by Kate Chopin
16.) Babe by Dick King-Smith
17.) Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
18.) Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
19.) Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
20.) The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
21.) Beloved by Toni Morrison
22.) Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
23.) The Bhagava Gita
24.) The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duffy
25.) Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
26.) A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
27.) Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
28.) Brick Lane by Monica Ali
29.) Candide by Voltaire
30.) The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
31.) Carrie by Stephen King
32.) Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
33.) Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
34.) The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
35.) The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
36.) Christine by Stephen King
37.) A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
38.) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
39.) The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
40.) The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty
41.) The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
42.) Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
43.) The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
44.) Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
45.) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
46.) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
47.) Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac
48.) Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
49.) The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
50.) The Crucible by Arthur Miller
51.) Cujo by Stephen King
52.) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
53.) Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
54.) David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
55.) David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
56.) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
57.) Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
58.) Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
59.) Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
60.) Deenie by Judy Blume
61.) The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
62.) The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
63.) The Divine Comedy by Dante
64.) The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
65.) Don Quixote by Cervantes
66.) Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
67.) Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
68.) Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
69.) Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
70.) The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
71.) Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
72.) Eloise by Kay Thompson
73.) Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
74.) Emma by Jane Austen
75.) Empire Falls by Richard Russo
76.) Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
77.) Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
78.) Ethics by Spinoza
79.) Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
80.) Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
81.) Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
82.) Extravagance by Gary Krist
83.) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
84.) Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
85.) The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
86.) Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
87.) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
88.) The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
89.) Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
90.) The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
91.) Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
92.) Fletch by Gregory McDonald
93.) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
94.) The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
95.) The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
96.) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
97.) Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
98.) Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
99.) Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
100.) Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
101.) George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
102.) Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
103.) Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
104.) The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
105.) The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
106.) The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
107.) Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
108.) Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
109.) The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
110.) The Graduate by Charles Webb
111.) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
112.) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
113.) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
114.) The Group by Mary McCarthy
115.) Hamlet by William Shakespeare
116.) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
117.) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
118.) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
119.) Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
120.) Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
121.) Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
122.) Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
123.) Henry V by William Shakespeare
124.) High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
125.) The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
126.) Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
127.) The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
128.) House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
129.) The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
130.) How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
131.) How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
132.) How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
133.) Howl by Allen Ginsberg
134.) The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
135.) The Iliad by Homer
136.) I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
137.) In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
138.) Inferno by Dante
139.) Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
140.) Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
141.) It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
142.) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
143.) The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
144.) Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
145.) The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
146.) The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
147.) Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
148.) The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
149.) Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
150.) The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
151.) Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
152.) The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
153.) Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
154.) The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
155.) Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
156.) Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
157.) Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
158.) Life of Pi by Yann Martel
159.) Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
160.) The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
161.) The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
162.) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
163.) Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
164.) Lord of the Flies by William Golding
165.) The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
166.) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
167.) The Love Story by Erich Segal
168.) Macbeth by William Shakespeare
169.) Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
170.) The Manticore by Robertson Davies
171.) Marathon Man by William Goldman
172.) The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
173.) Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
174.) Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
175.) Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
176.) The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
177.) Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
178.) The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
179.) The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
180.) Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
181.) The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
182.) Moby Dick by Herman Melville
183.) The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
184.) Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
185.) A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
186.) Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
187.) A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
188.) A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
189.) Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
190.) Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
191.) My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
192.) My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
193.) My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
194.) Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo
195.) My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
196.) The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
197.) The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
198.) The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
199.) The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
200.) Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
201.) New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
202.) The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
203.) Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
204.) Night by Elie Wiesel
205.) Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
206.) The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
207.) Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
208.) Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
209.) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
210.) Old School by Tobias Wolff
211.) On the Road by Jack Kerouac
212.) One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
213.) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
214.) The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
215.) Oracle Night by Paul Auster
216.) Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
217.) Othello by Shakespeare
218.) Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
219.) The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
220.) Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
221.) The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
222.) A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
223.) The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
224.) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
225.) Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
226.) The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
227.) Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
228.) Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
229.) Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
230.) The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
231.) The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
232.) The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
233.) The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
234.) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
235.) Property by Valerie Martin
236.) Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
237.) Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
238.) Quattrocento by James Mckean
239.) A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
240.) Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
241.) The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
242.) The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
243.) Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
244.) Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
245.) Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
246.) The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
247.) Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
248.) The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien
249.) R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
250.) Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
251.) Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
252.) Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton
253.) Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
254.) A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
255.) A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
256.) Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
257.) The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition
258.) Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
259.) Sanctuary by William Faulkner
260.) Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
261.) Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James
262.) The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
263.) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
264.) Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
265.) The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
266.) The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
267.) Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
268.) Selected Hotels of Europe
269.) Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
270.) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
271.) A Separate Peace by John Knowles
272.) Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
273.) Sexus by Henry Miller
274.) The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
275.) Shane by Jack Shaefer
276.) The Shining by Stephen King
277.) Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
278.) S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
279.) Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
280.) Small Island by Andrea Levy
281.) Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
282.) Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
283.) Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
284.) The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
285.) Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
286.) The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
287.) Songbook by Nick Hornby
288.) The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
289.) Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
290.) Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
291.) The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
292.) Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
293.) Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
294.) The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
295.) A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
296.) Stuart Little by E. B. White
297.) Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
298.) Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
299.) Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
300.) Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
301.) A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
302.) Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
303.) Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
304.) Time and Again by Jack Finney
305.) The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
306.) To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
307.) To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
308.) The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
309.) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
310.) The Trial by Franz Kafka
311.) The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
312.) Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
313.) Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
314.) Ulysses by James Joyce
315.) The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
316.) Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
317.) Unless by Carol Shields
318.) Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
319.) The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
320.) Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
321.) Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
322.) The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
323.) Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
324.) Walden by Henry David Thoreau
325.) Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten
326.) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
327.) We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
328.) What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
329.) What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
330.) When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
331.) Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
332.) Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
333.) Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
334.) The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
335.) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
336.) The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
337.) The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Garden view ... an old stop motion

Garden view ... an old stop motion made with the Gopro.... basically cat and cloud spying.

 
Gopro-garden-bike from Tof (CG) on Vimeo.

October/Novermber reading List

Finally manage this year, to finish ( ahead of time ) my reading challenge, the target was 24 and I am already at 26. Now I have been quite helped by bedtime reading of children books to my daughter.

In order to continue on this good track here's my October/November reading list
First, it will consist of finishing up books I have started a long time ago:

• Dawn of the Dumb: Dispatches from the Idiotic Frontline by Charlie Brooker
• How Language Works by David Crystal
• The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Does Happen by Brian Cox
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Then more light reading:

• Me Cheeta: The Autobiography by James Lever
• Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick

.

Back to work, back to normal....

Back to work, back to normal....

Random itunes

You can tell a lot about someone by the type of music they listen to. Hit shuffle on your iPod, phone, iTunes, media player, etc, and write down the first 20 songs. [Then pass this on to 10 people.]

So on the 10 June 2014 this was my playlist

01. Where Do We Stand? - We Should Be Dead
02. Mr. Green Genes - Frank Zappa
03. Cosmic Rays - Charlie Parker
04. The Boys Of Ballinahinch - The Castle/ Micho Russell's Jimmy Murray, Jimmy Murphy & Peter Horan Trad. Music At Matt Molloy's
05. Things Ain't Like They Used To Be - The Black Keys
06. Emerald - Thin Lizzy
07. Only Time Will Tell - Etta James
08. Tomorrow Comes Today - Gorillaz
09. Ashes To Ashes - David Bowie
10. Daydream And Saunter - Kathryn Williams
11. I Want To Take You Higher - Sly & The Family Stone
12. Norwegian Wood - The Beatles
13. One Day In Your Life - Michael Jackson
14. Lilith - Jean-Louis Murat
15. Zigo - Les Têtes Raides
16. Satan's Theme - The Rondell's Rockabilly From Hell
17. Law Of The Bungle, Part II - Jethro Tull
18. Soir De Peine - Les Rita Mitsouko
19. Countdown [Alternate] - John Coltrane
20. Twentieth Century Fox - The Doors

Three years later it looks like:

1. All For Me Grog - The Dubliners
2. The Book I Haven't Read - Mercury Rev
3. To Binge - Gorillaz
4. Morning Dreams - Ladyhawke
5. I'll Show You - William Bell
6. Joga - Bjork
7. Streets of New York - Cerys Matthews
8. Slow Jam - New Order
9. At The Hop [Live] - Sha-Na-Na (Woodstock)
10. She is the Liquid Princess - Dionysos
11. Emily - Les Têtes Raides
12. For Reason Unknown - The Killers
13. Empty Spaces - Pink Floyd
14. Tú - Shakira
15. Ride The Rythm - Sly & The Family Stone
16. The New Religion - My Name is John
17. Night Prowler - ACDC
18. Travellin' Band - Creedence ClearWater Revival
19. Love is Kind - Lynched
20. Sunburn - Muse

Moist

MOIST ( Circa 14/05/2015 )

Oh sweaty purple polyp

It is time to be rejoiced

I have a full hoist

Of oysterly oyster

So moist

Moist, moist, moist

What a foist

This has to be voiced

Not even the salmon fishers moist

With their dribbling boat could hoist

Everybody like to be moist

So again let’s foist

And expectorate a fully voiced

We can grow more moist

Our sluggish eyes can feast

On the mucilaginous beast

Humid, putrid,

Dampish, crunchy and wet

Yes, bring us more sweat

We have our towel

Smear those damp cloth fouled

Let the towel growl

And howl

I hear the screeching owl

Beginning to rejoice

Moist, moist, moist

The towel is to be high hoist

Damp as a wovel

Let it be fuel

To make move our bowel.

Alternative facts, harcourt street and train wreck....

I have a postcard of the above picture on my wall, when my girlfriend first saw it, she declared:

"Oh this is the famous train crash in Dublin, Harcourt street"

No it is not, in the photograph you can read 'Gare de l'Ouest', and this train crash happened in 1985 in Paris, France.

There was indeed a train crash in Dublin, in 1900. And this is the picture:

12 years

12 years ago I landed in Ireland.

Robin encounter

Nice encounter near bray head...

  

Proust Questionnaire

What is your idea of happiness?

Reading by the sea

What is your favourite virtue?

Quietness

What do you most value in your friends?

Art of listening for the male. Confidence and humor for the women.

What is your biggest weakness?

Constant criticism

What is your most marked characteristic?

Beard and disorganised hair style

What is your idea of misery?

Losing my daughter

What is your favourite bird?

Red robin

Who are your favourite writers?

China Mieville, Philip K. Dick, Jules Vernes, J. Prevert, Henri Michaux.

Who are your favourite musicians?

Bach, Beck, Jethro Tull, Radiohead.

Who are your favourite heroes and heroines in fiction?

Hatteras, Mary Poppins.

Who are your favourite heroes and heroines in history?

Louise Michelle, Socrates, Isaac Newton, Grace Hooper.

What is your favourite food and drink?

Andouillettes. Diabolo menthe.

What event in history do you most admire?

The fall of the Berlin wall.

What social movement do you most admire?

May 1968 ... even if it failed. La commune de Paris.

What is your present state of mind?
Curious, optimistic, anxious.

Which fault in others do you most easily tolerate?

Rudeness.

Which fault in yourself do you most easily tolerate?

Extreme Introversion

Looking back at 2016

Well much like last year, I posted even less, found even less time to code and go diving.

However it has been a great year, a challenging one, but a great one. 

All thanks to my daughter. Love.

---

I recommend : https://www.futureme.org/ to keep track of your new objectives for the year. I am still working on mine.

Irish bucket list (outside Dublin )

Continuing from Dublin bucket list and that old post from 2008, on the 10 best things to do in Ireland, here's my Irish bucket list (omitting Dublin ):

• See Fungi the dolphin in Dingle, and have a swim with Dustin in Doolin.   ✔ ✔
• Visit Newgrange   ✔
• Visit the Titanic exposition in Belfast   ✔✔
• lock-in a pub ( not necessarily drunk).  ✔
• See the Giant Causeway  ✔
• Games Of Thrones film location road trip:
• Tollymore Forest Park.
• Castle Ward.
• The Dark Edges.
• Downhill Strand.
• Ballintoy.
• Shillanavoghy Valley.
• Walk to the top of Croagh Patrick
• A road trip along the Atlantic Film Trail:
• Leenane (Movie: The Field)
• Cong (Movies: The Quiet Man, The Purple Taxi) ✔
• Roundstone (Movie: Into the west)
• Dingle Peninsula (Movies: Far and Away, Ryan's daughter) ✔
• Derrynane (Movie: Excalibur)
• Union Hall (Movie: The War of the button) ✔
• Kilmichael - Co Cork (Movie: The wind that shakes the barley)
• Youghal (Movie: Moby Dick)
• See the Cliffs of Moher ✔ - bonus: On a boat from the sea. ✔
• Walk the Wicklow way / St Kevin's Way
• Climb Mount Brandon (Kerry)
• Mountain bike in Ballyhoura. ✔
• Cycle the Great Western Greenway (Mayo)
• Cycle the Dublin-Galway Greenway (once completed)
• Visit the Japanese Garden in Tramore
• Cycle the Great Southern Trail
• Pub in session in the Salty dog in Kilkee. ✔
• Surf on the Clare coast. ✔
• Scuba-diving the following sites:
• Down the Skelligs. ✔
• Kilkee. ✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔✔
• Inishboffin. ✔
• Hook Head. ✔
• U boat in Cork.
• Spend a week on an island off the west coast of Ireland. ✔
• Father Ted Festival
• Electric Picnic. ✔ ✔
• Body & Soul. ✔
• Sea Session. ✔
• Climb Carrauntoohill. ✔
• Attend a Munster Hurling Final in Semple Stadium.
• Listen to ghost stories in Kinsale. ✔
• Watch the sunset over Rock of Cashel. ✔
• Circumnavigate Ireland in a sea kayak.
• Sea Kayak expedition in the following:
• Kerry
• Tramore ✔
• Cork
• Dublin Bay
• Clare Coast.
• A night out in a Doolin or Brandon pub. ✔
• Spend a night on one of the Aran Island, after a day of cycling, you'll enjoy the best Guinness in the world. ✔
• Drink a pint in the South Pole Inn, on your way to Dingle. ✔
• Have an unexpected encounter with sharks on the west coast of Ireland (basking or blue). ✔
• Climb all the way up to the Skelligs.
• Participate to a Currach race down in Kerry or a Galway Hooker race up to the Arans.

My Dublin bucket list

My irish Dublin bucket list, largely inspired by French Foodie ( See her's http://www.frenchfoodieindublin.com/2015/12/my-dublin-bucket-list.html )

• Kayaking on the royal/grand canal.
• Cycle along the royal canal. (grand canal too).
• Swimming at the 40 foot.
• Visit St. Valentine in Whitefriar Street Church.
• Visit the Teeling Whiskey distillery.
• See the Final of the Hurling GAA championship in Croke Park, if possible featuring Limerick - Might have to wait a long time for that one.
• Go to a show in the Abbey Theatre.
• See the deers in the Phoenix Park.
• Cycle in Phoenix Park.
• Cycle in Clontarf.
• Visit Jeanie Johnston tall ship and famine museum.
• Visit the National Gallery of Ireland. - the restaurant is very decent, but so far I have not been to the gallery itself.
• Visit the Dublin Writers Museum.
• Visit the Áras an Uachtaráin.
• Sail in Dublin Bay.
• Visit the Irish National War Memorial Gardens.
• Go see Roller Derby in Tallaght (National Basketball Arena)
• Go to the National Aquatic Centre.
• Yoga in Ranelagh / Yoga in the Park or Yoga by the sea (Sandymount ).
• Go to the Gravediggers pub.
• Hill walk up to the Hell Fire Club.
• Walk the Dodder all the way to Lansdowne road.
• Have a bite in the following restaurants:
• Super Miss Sue
• Anything suggested by French Foodie

And my completed ones:

• I saw the Book of Kells: the long hall of the library was way more awesome than the book itself - you can only see one page.
• Visit the Guinness Storehouse: Good one, especially for the very special treat of savoring a pint of Guinness while enjoying a 360 view of Dublin.
• Visit the Little Museum of Dublin: So much to see in this tiny space, a little capharnaüm-esque. I wish the museum was somehow bigger, and there were more signs telling the story of each artifact - maybe in audio format. The guides are excellent and full of stories... don't just go there to watch the items, the stories are what makes the whole experience exhilarating.
• Boating in Dublin Bay - cruise from Dun Laoghaire to Howth.
• Eat a Dublin coddle: not sure I got what so fantastic about them, nice dish, I will probably get it the next time I see it on a menu. Pity, it is so rare to find a place which serves them in Dublin. Maybe an additional excuse to go to the gravedigger.
• Go to Johnnie Fox's: fun
• Visit the Old Jameson Distillery: Quite disappointed to be honest, I enjoyed more the Bushmills tour.
• See a GAA match in Croke Park: seen a few hurling and Football, most notably on the St Patrick.
• See a rugby match in Lansdowne road:
• France and Ireland: It was friendly, and France won .... woot
• European Cup: ASM vs Leinster, and Clermont Won.... woot
• European Cup Final: ASM vs Toulon :( we shall not talk about Alesia...
• Visit the National Botanic Gardens: Excellent, especially for kids, there is also a lovely one in Wicklow.
• Visit the Dublin Zoo: Brilliant... will return soon, and more often, my favorites: the sea lions, the otters and the red panda.
• Visit the Glasnevin cemetery : the fascinating story of the place itself and then people stories, do the guided tour, learn how enemies ended up buried feet from each other. There is a documentary worth watching: "One Million Dubliners" directed by Aoife Kelleher.
• Visit the Irish museum of Modern Art: good one, the ground are excellent for kids running, and there is a tea room for mammy to relax.
• Visit the National Museum of Ireland: If only to see some of the Eileen Gray stuff, or the military area, do take the trip to see the Asgard ship.
• Go to Forbidden Fruit.
• Go see the miniature model train in Marlay park.
• Visit and Buy a book in those brilliant bookshops:
• Hodges Figgis
• The winding Stair
• Have tea and tart in the Queen of Tarts.
• Visit the Archeology part of the National Museum - an amazing collection.
• Visit the dead animal museum - more interesting than i thought, but not buggy friendly.
• Visit Dublin Castle.
• Take a stroll along the great south walk wall, (poolbeg lighthouse walk).
• Take a stroll along the north bull wall (Clontarf).
• Have a drink in those pubs - highly recommended
• Izakaya
• Stag's Head
• Against the grain
• Anseo
• The Bernard shaw
• Have a bite in the following restaurants:
• Yamamori

The dodder ....

And this is how we started exploring the dodder ....

Where you can see a Rhino in the river

Rhino

A Weir

weir

Two Pals looking for grub.

Fishing

Chilling under trees

chilling water

Under the trees

Iceland - a first visit

So last weekend we travelled to Iceland, a brilliant birthday from my adorable girlfriend.

HALLGRÍMSKIRKJA CHURCH

Graf Reykjavik

 

Geysers

Misc

Not much to say except that I hope to come back.

Looking back at 2015... and moving on

2015 was a weird year for me, despite my vows (expressed in that post).
It felt like nothing much happened, that I was stuck in static place, and yet I am ending the year with the biggest event of my life: becoming a father.

A year which saw an imbecile and horrific attack on the newspaper which embodied my student spiritual life (Charlie Hebdo ), the resulting death of Wolinsky and Cabu.
At the beginning of the year, I thought I'd be

I have been a shitty friend throughout 2015, to some people going through hardship. Once more I gave up on the leading diver exams, I did not blog and write as much.....
That year felt like hibernating and now I am a dad....