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:

Number	Book Title	Read (Y/N)
1	1984 by George Orwell	Y
2	The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain	-
3	Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll	Y
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	Y
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	Y
34	The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger	Y
35	The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman	-
36	Christine by Stephen King	Y
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	Y
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	Y
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	Y
68	Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe	Y
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	Y
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	Y
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	Y
113	Great Expectations by Charles Dickens	-
114	The Group by Mary McCarthy	-
115	Hamlet by William Shakespeare	Y
116	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling	Y
117	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling	Y
118	A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers	-
119	Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad	Y
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	Y
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	Y
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	Y
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	Y
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	Y
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	Y
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	Y
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	Y
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....