Chichin is dead RIP

Seen in Tracks (Arte)

Les Rita Mitsouko - C'est Comme Ca
envoyé par candyraton

4 THINGS

WHAT 4 JOBS I HAVE HAD:

Supermarket assistant.

IC mask engineer

4 PLACES I'VE LIVED:

Auvergne (Hauterive/Clermont) - France

Where I grew up, green hills, lovely food. And the place i've done all my studies.

Alpes (Grenoble/Nice) - France

Mountains, where I started my working life.
A view from my window at the time:

Lombardia (Monza) - Italy

A short stay in Italy, but quite interesting, and my first taste of living abroad.
Can't speak a word of Italian, but at the end i did understand it. And it's where i discovered Italians were crazy about soccer.

Munster (Limerick) - Ireland

Where I live at the moment, temple of Irish rugby, despite a bad reputation (stab city), a nice place to live, and quite close from the surf and diving spots.


4 PLACES I'VE BEEN ON HOLIDAY:

Red Sea
My first scuba diving holidays, in hot water, lovely to just need a t-shirt to dive.
Excellent though i had to wait the last dive to spot an octopus.

Corsica

Again scuba-diving holidays.

Spain
My first scuba diving holidays abroad... nice.

Royan - France
Where i used to go on holidays with my parents, when i was (very) young, probably the reason why i love the sea so much.

4 FAVOURITE FOODS:

Omelette with potatoes and some cheese.

Raclette, recipe fro winter survival made of cheese and charcuterie.

"Bleu d'auvergne" a cheese originated from the hills i grew up.

Andouillettes a tasty French sausage made from the colon and stomach of a pig.

4 PLACES I'D LIKE TO VISIT:

New Zealand
For the next world cup and see France win it :-P.

Iceland
To dive in Silfra

Quebec
To see a hockey game, meet people speak "quebecois" and so much more.

Sweden
I like cold countries.

4 PLACES I'D RATHER BE:
NA at the moment.

And you ?

ASM - Munster [2]

Few pics of the french supporters:

The Fox is here to stay in Ireland.

Thomond Park is still under re-construction, but that did not change a bit the atmosphere.

The stadium is going to be fantastic with 26000 places ( and the city deserted the match day )

ASM - Munster [1]

So "les Jaunes et Bleus" ( the yellow and blue ) came to Thomond Park ( still under renovation ) to face mighty Munster in the Heineken Cup.

Great game, even if i would i have prefer to see Clermont fist team, with the like of Mignoni, Bonnaire, Rougerie...

The atmosphere was great ( as usual in Thomond Park ), with people singing The Fields of Athenry
:

Lyrics

By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young girl calling
"Michael, they have taken you away
For you stole Trevelyan's corn
So the young might see the morn'
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay"

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry

By a lonely prison wall, I heard a young man calling
"Nothing matters, Mary, when you're free
Against the famine and the Crown
I rebelled, they cut me down
Now you must raise our child with dignity"

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry

By a lonely harbour wall, she watched the last star falling
As the prison ship sailed out against the sky
For she'll live in hope and pray
For her love in Botany Bay
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry

Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the fields of Athenry

or the Munster's song, Stand Up and Fight:

STAN' UP AN' FIGHT (TOREADOR SONG)

Thanks a lot! I'm sure glad to be,
To be where I c'n see
So many friends o' mine.
How've I been doin'? How've I been doin'?
If you really wanta know de truth,
I'm doin' fine!
Seventeen decisions in a row,
An' only five on points; de res' was all K.O.
Jackson an' Johnson, Murphy an' Bronson,
One by one dey come,
An' one by one to dreamland dey go.
How's it done? You ask me, how's it done?
I got a trainer man who taught me all I know.
Sure feels good to have him in my corner,
Hear his voice a-whisp'rin' low:
"Big boy, remember, you mus' remember...

Stan' up an' fight until you hear de bell,
Stan' toe to toe, trade blow fer blow,
Keep punchin' till you make yer punches tell,
Show dat crowd watcher know!
Until you hear dat bell, dat final bell,
Stan' up an' fight like hell!"

When you fight out in de open air,
In a patch o' light de ring looks small an' white.
Out in de blackness, out in de blackness,
You c'n feel a hun'erd thousan' eyes
Fillin' de night.
Cigarettes are blinkin' in de dark,
An' makin' polka dots aroun' de baseball park,
People are quiet den dere's a riot!
Someone t'rows a punch
An' plants it right smack on de mark...
Someone’s hurt, you kinda think it's you.
You hang across de ropes
Da's all you want to do.
Den you look aroun' an' see your trainer's eyes,
Beggin' you to see it through,
Dey say, "Remember, big Boy, remember

Stan' up an' fight until you hear de bell,
Stan' toe to toe, trade blow fer blow,
Keep punchin' till you make yer punches tell,
Show dat crowd watcher know!
Until you hear dat bell, dat final bell,
Stan, up an' fight like hell!"

Few french supporters have come for this occasion and we had a great week-end, touring few pubs (Clohessys, Nancy Blake, Flannerys in Catherine Street and Durty Nellys )

More with some pics, next post.

L'Auvergne debarque a Limerick.. J-6

Next Sunday, ASM (Clermont Auvergne) is playing Munster for the Heineken Cup in Limerick. Last Sunday night, Clermont beat the Lliannell Scarlet (semi-finalist last year after eliminating Munster ) 48-21 ( seven tries including 3 from Aurelien Rougerie ).....

This past week end i have start the training to be cox'n swain.
So what is cox'n swain ?
Definition: A person who usually steers a ship's boat and has charge of its crew. Under defined by CFT ( the Irish scuba diving federation ), it's basically, the person who's in charge of the diving boat, insure the safety of the divers on-site, and on the journey on and from the diving sites.
So last Saturday we spend the day lecturing about knots, charts, boats, and Sunday we had some boat practice in the Shannon estuary ( man over board, attach a buoy ...)

Sea safety:On the Royal Navy Lifeboat Institution website, there is load of informations about boat, driving safely which can easily be downloaded.The sea safety is accessible online.

Song List Week 45'07

Dear Darkness - P.J.Harvey (White Chalk)

Weird Fish Arpeggi - Radiohead (In Rainbows)

War - Edwin_Starr

All I need - Radiohead (In Rainbows)

Move over - Janis Joplin (Pearl)

Bad Skin Day - BellX1 (Flock)

xxxability - Maria Doyle Kennedy (Mother)

Magnificent Seven

While waiting for the Sarah Silverman Program to begin, i had the pleasure to watch again The Magnificent Seven, and it's getting better everytime you watch it again and again... and there is such brilliant quotes, here's few:

Reminds me of that fella back home who fell off a ten-story building. As he was falling, people on each floor kept hearing him say, "So far, so good. So far, so good." Vin (Steve McQueen)
The same story is also used in "La Haine" from Matthieu Kassovitz.

You don't happen to have an older, grateful sister, do you? Vin (Steve McQueen)

Fella I once knew in El Paso, one day he took all his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. I asked him the same question, why? He said it seemed to be a good idea at the time. Vin (Steve McQueen)

Once I rob a bank in Texas. Your government get after me with a whole army. Whole army! One little bank. In Texas, only Texans can rob banks. Calvera (Eli Wallach)

They are farmers. They talk of nothing but fertilizer and women. I have never shared their enthusiasm for fertilizer. As for women, I became indifferent when I was eighty-two. the old man ( loved the lookk McQueen gives him after hearing that...)

Harry, please don't understand me so fast. Chris Adams (Yul Brynner) aka the man with sea urchin in his underarms.

And after that one hour of absolutely outrageous, dark humour from Sarah Silverman, sleeping with black god, exploring her possible not so plausible lesbian part, on her comedy central show,

Just one example:
A couple nights ago, I was licking jelly off my boyfriend's penis. And I thought, "Oh, my God – I'm turning into my mother!"

Oh by the way just came back from a week of diving in the red sea.. lovely.

Ratatouille (2)

I've just seen last night, the last pixar movie: Ratatouille, as usual it's fantastic, Pixar is definitely so ahead of the other CGI animation studios. The story is great, but i also found myself dragged, into admiring the perfection of some details of the images, the motion of the rat, how their fur move , or all the work with the water, the copper ustensiles in the kitchen. It will definitely ends up in my DVD collection.And the movie is so full of details, from the Citroën cars (Ah la DS ... ), to the bread. The director is Brad Bird, already famous after The Iron Giant (1999) and The incredibles (2004), and which is called by A.Scott from the NY-Times the "the greatest living American filmmaker” .
You can also read the critic of the movie by John Maguire on his blog.

Just one thing: If France is certainly where you can fin good food, i would say Paris is the best place ;-P, and all French does not wear beret.

Very interesting article in the NY-Times, about why Republicans hate Al Gore, firstly because he's still here after the white house was stolen to him and to American voters, and secondly because he keeps saying the right things ahead of everybody.

Allez on se fais mal une derniere fois

Pirate [FR]

From the show Lazy Town, originating from Jujux country.

The final we dreamed fro some time ... a day earlier

So finally, we will have this France-Argentina, for the small final, but the spectacle should be good, next friday.
On the other (big) final, South Africa should have no difficulties to have a deserved win over England... unless...


[EDIT] Loads of reaction, after the French defeat:

George Hook, in a very harsh article, sees there the end of the beautiful rugby union as we knew it.. I quote: A team without any worthwhile redeeming features except for sweaty effort has reached the final of the Rugby World Cup.

The famous ( for French supporters ) and quite deceived Chris Rattue state : The truth about Bernard Laporte's France was exposed at the Stade de France yesterday morning - an average and ageing side that a decent All Black unit should have put to the sword, as indeed they had done a number of times over the previous few years.

And even, English reporter title : Ugly win a thing of beauty

Hopefully Friday, we'll see a beautiful (finger cross) game show between France and Argentina, as this world cup and both teams deserve.

Disgusted

Disgusted .... France 9 - 14 England.
See you in 4 years in New Zealand.

[EDIT]Some reactions from France:

"Quand on joue contre les Anglais, on ne joue pas comme des Anglais. On joue à la française et on fait des passes" B.Lappasset ( president of the FFR ), in english: "When you play against the English, we don't play like englishmen. We play the french way, and we do the passes"...
So in France, some people are happy just because it touch a future junior minister of the current right-wing government, some are looking forward to a new coach and see the french-flair coming back, the others are sad... as Le monde put it: ceux qui s'en réjouissent, ceux qui expliquent et ceux qui excusent

In Rainbow

That's it In Rainbow, the latest album from Radiohead can be downloaded. And it's brilliant.

On more frivolous news, it seems that the defeat of the All Blacks over France, had some devastating and unexpected effects on life in New Zealand: Since Sunday's game, it seems several Kiwi males have either completely lost interest in sex, or - perhaps more worryingly - lost their ability to ... er, score. As Joanna Hurkin put it, in her blog, kiwis male have lost their libido...

Hell's Grannies

This is a frightened city. Over these houses, over these streets hangs a pall of fear. Fear of a new kind of violence which is terrorizing the city. Yes, gangs of old ladies attacking defenseless fit young men.

Monty Python's Flying Circus TV Show - Episode 8

Another shooting in St Mary's park yesterday, and this time a 25 year old man died .... after the last weeks, which saw almost an average of four shooting every weekend, sometimes in front of the Garda, i don't think anybody will be surprised in Limerick... unfortunately this has to happened...
But here's the kicker, last night an elderly couple (70 and 80) has been arrested for their involvement in the murder investigation....

[EDIT] The ederly couple has been released this wednesday morning without charge....

France 20 - All Blacks 18

Summary last 3 days
Pub : 4
Alcohol units : > 10 ( Guinness, Jameson, Jägermeister, rhum carambar )

Flannerys pub in Catherrine Street...



Pffffff... what a game .....

[EDIT] So last wednesday, Chris Rattue from the New Zealand Herald, was stating: France pose absolutely no threat to the All Blacks, analyzing quite rightly the performance of France over the past 8 years against the All Blacks... And monday 8 october, his article is titled: Salute the victor - Glorious France. As he said, this game was: simply magnificent. Heart stopping, pulse racing, edge of the seat, beads of sweat, shivers up the spine.

Inventory....

Kilkee, Ireland

France

Books:

- Freakonomics (ISBN 006089637X)
- Le Magasin des Suicidés de Jean Teulé (ISBN-13: 978-2260017080)

Irish Monopoly

A new edition of the game Monopoly is to be published: The Here and Now All Ireland edition.
Instead of the streets the (not all 32) counties are appearing, and the railway station are replaced by the four provinces (Munster, Ulster, Connaght and Leinster)... the full list can be found at monopoly.ie. Some interesting stuff there, the Kingdom (Kerry) is on the low end while Limerick and Roscommon are the highest end. Cork is the 2nd more expensive item of the board (Champs Elysées in the french édition).

Radiohead - New LP .... New trade

That's it the new Radiohead LP will be availaible October 10th... on download first, not via iTunes or anywhere else directly from he band itself, via their website, without any record company....
It's called In Rainbows


More news:

http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/

http://www.greenplastic.com/

http://www.ateaseweb.com/

[EDIT] Seems the news is exciting a lot of people, particulary from Freakonomics, who would love to see the results of Radiohead sells.

More material well being or...

Heard Friday, an interesting interview of Greenspan, former head of the federal bank, he got an interesting point about the choice facing our societies: "more material well being or more tranquility, we can't have both as current data suggests".
For him, instability ( economic bubbles) are rooted within our economic system, and therefore are part of its growth. In other words, people can't keep being richer and at the same time achieve piece of mind, as the instability of the capital create growth and unease.

I tend to agree on part of his analysis, and here the question, what do we really want: more cars/ipod/flat screen or more happiness ?

Paillardises [FR]

Grand Vicaire (Le)
Bis pour chaque vers)

Chez nous le méchoui, c’est une coutume
Mon papa fait l’barbecue,
Ma maman fait le mouton,
Et le curé l’embroche…
Et le grand vicaire, toujours par derrière
N’a jamais pu l’embrocher.

Chez nous le jardinage, c’est une coutume
Mon papa fait la charrue,
Ma maman elle fait les bœufs,
Et le curé laboure (la bourre)…
Et le grand vicaire, toujours par derrière,
N’a jamais pu la bourrer.

Chez nous l’évasion, c’est une coutume
Mon papa c’est la prison,
Ma maman c’est les barreaux
Et le curé la lime…
Et le grand vicaire, toujours par derrière,
N’a jamais pu la limer.

Chez nous la glace, c’est une coutume
Mon papa, c’est le cornet,
Ma maman, elle fait la boule,
Et le curé la lèche…

Chez nous la boulangerie, c’est une coutume
Mon papa prepare la pate,
Ma maman la petri,
Et le curé la fourre…

Chez nous les baskets, c’est une coutume
Mon papa fait les Reebok,
Ma maman fait Adidas,
Et le curé la Nike…

Chez nous les vendanges, c’est une coutume
Mon papa fait le raisin,
Ma maman fait les bouteilles,
Et le curé l’embouche…

Chez nous la pétanque, c’est une coutume
Mon papa fait l’cochonnet,
Ma maman elle fait la boule,
Et le curé la tire…

Chez nous la basse-cour, c’est une coutume
Mon papa fait le goret,
Ma maman fait le canard,
Et le curé lapine…

Chez nous les rideaux, c’est une coutume
Mon papa fait les anneaux,
Ma maman fait le tissu,
Et le curé la tringle…

Chez nous la couture, c’est une coutume
Mon papa prépare les fils,
Ma maman c’est les aiguilles,
Et le curé l’enfile…

Chez nous la boulangerie, c’est une coutume
Mon papa c’est le mitron,
Ma maman prépare la pâte,
Et le curé l’enfourne…

Chez nous les crêpes, c’est une coutume
Mon papa il fait la poêle,
Ma maman elle fait la pâte,
Et le curé la r’tourne..

Chez nous la gymnastique, c’est une coutume
Mon papa fait le salto,
Ma maman fait la rondade,
Le curé la culbute…

Chez nous la chasse, c’est une coutume
Mon papa c’est le faisan,
Ma maman c’est la bécasse,
Et le curé la plombe…


Chez nous les cadeaux, c’est une couutme
Mon papa fait le paquet,
Ma maman fait le ruban,
Et le curé l’emballe…

Chez nous la fête foraine, c’est une coutume
Mon papa fait les jetons,
Ma maman fait la voiture,
Le curé la tamponne…

Chez nous l’anatomie, c’est une coutume
Mon papa il fait les jambes,
Ma maman elle fait les bras,
Et le curé la tronche / la tête…

Chez nous les légos, c’est une coutume
Mon papa fait les clipos,
Ma maman fait les duplos,
Et le curé l’emboîte…

Chez nous la bricole, c’est une coutme
Mon papa fait le marteau,
Ma maman elle fait le clou,
Et le curé l’enfonce…

Chez nous le gazon, c’est une coutume
Mon papa fait le terreau,
Ma maman c’est la pelouse,
Et le curé la broute…

Chez nous les conduits, c’est une coutume
Mon papa fait les tuyaux,
Ma maman la cheminée,
Le curé la ramone…

.....

Tracks dispo en streamin [FR]

L'excellente émission d'Arte Tracks est maintenant visible en streamin a partir sur site de l'émission tous les vendredis.

On the english side new seasons of weeds, and here it's start with an interesting life lesson:

Irish Activity

Video Selection

Yo what's up bro....

Who said youngsters wer not polite and did not say hello properly ...

The wind .. sympthatetic ecoimagination spot


Still him and he finally find a job and a pupose:

Tele Libre (FR)

Le collège de France met en ligne ses conférences.

Etienne Mineur Blog d'un graphiste

la télé libre : http://www.latelelibre.fr/

Bergman death

Underwater Ireland

Just a link of National Geogrpahic adventure:
Underwater Ireland by the National Geogrpahic

Franco-philie on irish Radio

Listening last night Tom Dunne on Today FM (Pet Sounds show), and guess what i've heard, the last single from the Rita Mistsouko (album Variety): L'ami ennemi.
Amongst others here is what you can heard in french over teh past few days:

MALAJUBE ( MONTRAL – 40 ) Quebec

LES RITA MITSOUKO ( C’EST COMME CA ) France

LES RITA MITSOUKO ( L'ami ennemi ) France

Quebec... nouvelle scene ???

Another great band from Quebec.... Malajube "Montreal -40"

Kilkee

Scuba Diving Links in Ireland

• Aughinish Diving Club
  
• Scuba Diving forum on boards.ie
  
• Diving Site in Kilkee
  
• Scuba Web Shop (Spain based)
  
• Diver Warehouse (UK)
  
• Aqualung
  
• Met Eireann Costal forecast
  
• Irish Sailing Association (PowerBoat)
  
• Irish underwater council
  
• Waterwold Diving in CastleGregory (Kerry)
  
• Mevagh Dive Centre Donegal
  
• Baltimore (west Cork) Dive Center
  
• Valentia Island Sea Sports
  
• Dive Center Kilkee
  
• Beuchat [FR]
  
• CMAS
  
• French Diving Federation
  
• Aqua Sète [FR]
  
• Insa Bulles [FR]
  
• Emmanule Georges [FR], Theorie Niv 1,2,4
  

8th Final

• It was the 8th final of the french championship, for Clermont Auvergne (ASM) , and we lose it again ... snifff...
  
• Thousands of irish drivers only got provisional license: as indicated in the Irish Independent, 101 000 are on their third ( or more ) provisional license, which means they are unqualified driver who failed the test. Worst part you don't need to had a single driving lesson for that, you only need to apply for the test ( without even have to pass it ) in order to have your provisional license renewed. There is something like 20% (431 895 is the exact figure) of the drivers in ireland who only holds a provisional license.
  

Such a perfect day

Perfect saturday, morning scubadiving in Castlegregory, and afternoon on the beach....

The only lowlights of the day: 1. No girls were serving the tea on the boat ( Mika will understand, and no they were not there at all) 2. No waves... damn

Irish Forum

A nice Irish forum, full of useful information: boards.ie.
I particularly enjoy the threads about Scuba Diving.


Today Medium Windows Media Player (previous one)

1. What do you think of me, random music player?
    Cocoon - Bjork
2. Will I have a long and happy life?
    Pinocchio - Radio Bemba osund System - Manu Chao
3. What do my friends really think of me?
    Venus as a boy - Bjork
4. What does my S/O think of me?
    Hey Joe - Poppa Chubby
5. Do people secretly lust after me?
    Heartbeats - Joze Gonzales
6. How can I make myself happy?
    Skin - Maria Doyle Kennedy
7. What should I do with my life?
    Go to Mexico - Cassandra Wilson
8. Why must life be so full of pain?
    Almost Done - Morcheeba
9. How can I maximize my pleasure during sex?
    Sweet Goddess love and beer - Poppa Chubby
10. Will I ever have children?
  Get a kick out of you - Lisa Ekhdal
11. Will I die happy?
   Sweey Scented Figure - Scott Matthews
12. Can you give me some advice?
    Elusive - Scott Matthews
13. What do you think happiness is?
    I am waiting for the day - Beach Boys
14. Do you have any advice to give over the next few hours/days?
    Seeing things - Zero 7

I love answer 13,14,9, 7 ... but for the rest it's a bit cryptic.... may be i better should look at my horoscope:

Today the world will seem like a mirror, because you will see a bit of yourself in every person you interact with. Your empathy is turned up to the max, and you may suddenly have the urge to become someone's teacher or mentor. It makes sense, because there is someone in your life who could use a pointer or two -- and you know that you are the perfect person to provide them. Make time for a few lessons early today, and by the afternoon you'll see progress.

Sounds good .... except what it seems i am going to mentor some guy.... poor guy ... LOL

God only knows

I discover a fantastic stand up comedian: Sarah Silverman, you can see the introduction she made to the MTV awards here on dailymotion and some more on youtube.


Songs of the week

• God only Knows - Beach Boys
  
• Who'll stop the rain - CCR
  
• FXXX & Call Me - Maria Doyle Kennedy
  
• Keep the car running - Arcade Fire
  

Statistics of the week : Brain Age best = 23 worst = 27 ; Unit of alcohol 4 ; Pub = 3 ; Weight = 95kg ; Cycle = 0km ; ScubaDive = 0 ; X-Ray = 1

Go Clermont

Clermont auvergne is in final of the TOP 14 (the french championship), after a fantastic victiry over Toulouse in semi-final. So it's all heads to the 9th of june, for the great final in Paris against the Stade Francais. It will be the 8th time Clermont (ASM) is in Final of the championship.

Allez les bougnats !!!

40 years of Sgt Pepper

Today 1st june, we are celebrating the 40 years anniversary of the mythic album: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles. And on this occasion Tom Dunne on the radio Today FM, play during 3 hours the full album with some pieces it was influenced from (Pet Sounds) and it has influenced. Elected by the Rolling stone magazine, as the best album of all times, here the list of the 5 first (out of 500, the full list you can find on Rolling Stone website):
1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles
2. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
3. Revolver, The Beatles
4. Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan
5. Rubber Soul, The Beatles

Which bring us to my personal list of favourites album:

1. Tostaky - Noir Désir
   
2. Amnesiac - Radiohead
   
3. Néon Bible - Arcade Fire
   
4. If I could only remember my name - David Crosby
   
5. No Quartr - Page and Plant
   
6. CCR Live in Europe - Creedence Clearwater Revival
   
7. Whaterver the weather - Dionysos
   
8. Strange Days - The Doors
   
9. Hells freeze over - Eagles
   
10. Baduizm - Erykha Badhu
    
11. Fuzzy - Grant Lee Buffalo
    
12. Pearl - Janis Joplin
    
13. Burtsing Out - Jethro Tull
    
14. Live from Mars - Ben Harper
    
15. Grace - Jeff Buckley
    
16. Daemon Days - Gorillaz
    
17. Début -Björk
    
18. The cover records - Cat Power
    
19. Wish you were here - Pink Floyd
    
20. Rory Gallagher - Rory Gallagher
    
21. Stoosh - Skunk Anansie
    
22. Since I left you - Avalanches
    
23. Rhum, sodomy, & the lash - The Pogues
    
24. Who's next - The Who
    
25. Express Way - Troublemakers
    
26. The best band... - Franck Zappa
    

Limerick some place of interest:

Maria Doyle Kennedy

Just seen Maria Doyle Kennedy in Dolans. Excellent... I am probably gonna buy the album, you can listen to some of her song on her space on mySpace.

And if you are in Limerick this saturday night, another DJ battle is organised in the Underground (Baker-Place / Wicked Chicken).

Lomography

Lomography or a way to enjoy photography. here's the rule:
1. Take your LOMO everywhere you go and whenever you go.
2. Use it any time - day or night.
3. Lomography is not an interference in your life, but a part of it.
4. Shoot from the hip.
5. Approach the objects of your lomographic desire as close as possible.
6. Don't think.
7. Be fast.
8. You don't have to know beforehand what you've captured on film.
9. You don't have to know afterwards, either.
10. Don't worry about the rules.

But after you can also tried to put some lomo effects ( with Gimp ) on your digital pictures:

Here how to do it (with Gimp):
* Open a picture.
* From the menu choose ‘Image: Colors: Brightness-Contrast’ and increase the contrast by 30.
* From the menu choose ‘Image: Colors: Hue-Saturation’ and increase the saturation by 30.
* Choose the ‘Rectangular Selection’ tool.
* Open the ‘Tool Options’ dialog.
* Select ‘Feather’ and change the feather amount to ⅛th of the width of your picture.
* Select your entire picture. Choosing ‘Select: All’ from the menu will not work.
* From the menu choose ‘Select: Invert’.
* Create a new layer in the ‘Layers, Channels & Paths’ dialog.
* Change your primary color to black. Fill the selection on the new, blank layer.
* Change the mode of this layer to ‘Overlay’.
* Duplicate the layer.
* From the menu choose ‘Select: None’.
* Now select your base layer (the one with the picture on it).
* Create a new layer.
* Select the ‘Blend’ tool.
* Change the gradient type to ‘Radial’.
* Change the blend type to ‘FG to transparant’.
* Change your primary color to white.
* With the blend tool selected, click in the middle of the picture, and drag the line out to the farthest edge of your picture (if it’s a portrait, use top or bottom, if landscape, use left or right).
* Change the mode of this layer to ‘Overlay’.
* Change the Opacity of this layer to 80% (or whatever you see fit, you’ll see what I mean).


Filckr vision combines Google Maps and Flickr, and display teh latest upload on the website

Irish Election

Ireland just got a general election. They voted on thursday, and today saturday there are still counting ( and recounting the votes ) !!?!!!?

A bit of explanation is necessary. Irish voted thrursday for the Dáil Éireann eth lower house of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oireachtas Oireachtas] which is the parlement of the state. There are 166 seats elected for a maximum of 5 years ( but the Prime Minister can dissolve the Dail before that). A politican elected at the Dail is called a TD (Teachta Dála).
Ireland is divided ( which normally follow the counties limit, but subdvision can happen) in constituency, in order that each TD represent the same amount of people.
In each constituency there is 3 to 5 seats to be filled.
Other things, all members of the governement must be an elected TD ( there is less power separation between executive and legislative ), and the government composition is voted at the Dail. That means this election directly decide who is in power for the next five years.
Actually one of the member of the Dail is automatically re-elected (unless he resigned or die ):the Ceann_Comhairle

Now the fun part, how the TD are elected, and why does it 2 to 3 days to count the votes ( in a country where there is only 4 millions habitants ):
the system used is Single Transferable Vote which introduce proportionality in the results of the vote.
So it's not the 3 candidates with most votes in a constituency who necessarly got the seats.
First when you vote, you indicate a list of preferences for the candidates ( number 1 will be say candidate B, then 2 the candidate C... etc )
To be elected a candidate need to exceed a given quota ( calculated on the number of validat vote, basically : 1 + vote / ( setas + 1 ) .
Then one candidate exceed the quota, his vote are reported following the preferences indicated by the voter to the other candidates.

I can't imagine the mess when they are counting, and recounting ( at the moment saturday afternoon, 3 constituencies are recounting following reclamation from candidate )....

Update: That create some interesting TV show, RTE for example spend all friday and most of saturday airing a show going through each constituency, each count as they go along. Some constituency only got all seats filled after 7 to 8 count.
One interesting thing is with that kind of proportional system, one party can hardly get the overall majoroty on its own, it has to compromise and create coalition with smaller party.

For example, the overall majority is 84 seats, Fine Fael got 78, his current partner in the governement the Progressive Democtrats got 2... which means they need at least 4 ( out of 5 ) independants to join them ( or from another party, more likely green ).
The leader of the opposition Enda Kenny, is doing a different count: Fine Gael his party got 51 + 20 from the Labour + 6 from the green = 77, he needs the independant and all 5 independant and probably the 2 PD ( but his election program was vote for a change ) or Sinne Feinn ( but for some reason everybody ruled out to have a coalition with them ... from Ahearn to Kenny )... I don't quite actually understand him.

Limerick

Star Wars parody

A parody of the TV program cops... on Tatoine


And what happen when the monthy python meet Star Wars ( or was the dark knight a sith ? ).

Ratatouille

The next disney/pixar movie (in theater June 29th), looks fantastic all about cooking, i am already impressed by the copper casseroles, there is a 9 minutes preview on the website (enjoy).
Ratatouille Website

French are always complaining....

And it turn out...it's true.A study by FDS International found exactly that: French workers are the world's biggest whiners.In the same study, it appears Irish complain least about their lot.

Brits ( 37% feel they don’t get enough holidays, putting them at No.1 in the Holiday Whinge rankings) enjoy an average of 33.5 days annual leave and public holidays – but despite having less holidays (29), only 13 per cent of workers in Ireland whinge about their lack of holidays.

The report is called: What Workers Want: A Worldwide Study
of Attitudes to Work and Work-Life Balance (by FDS International)

The study findings are based on (amongst others):
- satisfaction with issues including pay levels.
- work-life balance.
- average working hours.

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Wisdom ranking
Got 4.2 at this test: Wisdom scorecard

NY times related article: The Older-and-Wiser Hypothesis.

American view of France

EOS 400D ... my new toy

Limerick view from the quay.

Wall in da house.

Ring of Kerry ...cloudy

On the road to valentia (island)


Valentia Island



View on the Skellig Islands from Valentia Island