the moral black hole

Threepeat

2009-08-14T15:45:00.002+01:00

Im sure you've all heard by now that we won the three in a row Shamrock Bowls but I just want to commit my own thoughts to written word anyway.

WE WON!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAAAA!!!

That is pretty much all I have.

So El Presidente passed them

2009-07-23T10:11:00.002+01:00

Just heard there that Mary McEleese and the Council of Government investigated the constitutionality of the new Gangland and Defamation legislation. They deemed both of them constitutional and they will be passed into law. Ok so the Council of Government had a mix of Ministers, the Prez, high ranking judiciary and BIFFO. Surely there was a lot of browbeating going on in that situation and many of the representatives being from the Fianna Fail side of the political world. If there was such controversy about the Bills and they felt they had to look at them would it not have made more sense to send them to an unbiased Supreme Court where the outcome would not have been questioned. With the amount of shite that this government is coming under you'd think they would make it easy on themselves. Was there really a need to rush this headlong through the process. With Lisbon coming up they shouldnt piss the electorate off. They have a bit of a track record of putting out hastily put together legislation with loads of loopholes and shite. Im sure Conal can shed more light on the issue.

Hope after all the furore the Gangland bill works well and reduces the crap going on in Limerick.

Other than that, life is good. Football is heading into the playoffs, Semi final this weekend against Carrick. Should be a great game. The new house is going really well, nice and quiet and suiting me perfectly. We booked an auld holiday to France for a week. Should be very lovely.

'Allo 'Allo

2009-07-14T14:24:00.002+01:00

Im in work now still recovering from a great weekend and I said a spot of blogging would probably help my mental state and burn a few minutes. Since I've last posted, I moved into my new house in Cois Ghruda, its very lovely, nice house, sound housemates and its quiet and tidy. Im definately picking up good habits.

Last weekend was fun, myself and walshie ended up deciding to go to oxegen the week of the festival, went for the saturday. It was a good laugh, nothing too mad, no major queues or hassle, just went up and enjoyed the gigs and came back. Messiah J and the Expert were excellent, Regina Spektor was good, Kings of Leon looked and sounded spectacular but were very stiff with the crowd and stuff. Not really showmen. But a good band.

The big thing worrying me at the minute is the Criminal Justice (Amendment) Bill. All Conals friends in the big law companies have came out against it, as well as civil liberties groups and a lot of the press. I'm not sure what to make of it. I do think it will help with the fight on the streets against gang crime and I think the Data Retention Bill is also designed to do that. I do get the feeling though that the government needed a "win" before the long summer break and rushed these anti-crime bills through to be seen to be taking a pro-active role in crime fighting. From what I hear they are poorly designed bills that are cobbled together to serve a purpose and will have a lot of loop-holes and will cause problems down the line.

Question is, is it ok to have our civil liberties reduced in order to reduce the threat of organised gang crime?

Should the President/Senate delay the Bill in order to have sufficient time to work the kinks out?

So that went well...

2009-06-24T10:07:00.002+01:00

Last saturdays party was a success anyway judging by the state my house is in and the general feedback. Myself and paul went out to the house on Friday evening to prepare the house, which took a total of about an hour or so. After that we were laying around the house and boredom set in and there was a large amount of beer laying around the house for the day after. Predictably enough we had a couple, a couple turned into a few and before we knew Conal had arrived and there was a full on drinking session underway. Conal thoroughly showed us up. Myself and Paul had been drinking about 5 hours at this stage and were fairly together. Conal, 4 hours behind us, suddenly stands up, picks up a kiwi fruit, runs outside the door and smashes it off the kitchen window. We had 40 beers in the house, 6 were left the next day. Not bad for a pre-party warm up.

The next day I press-ganged the lads into working, Conal mowing the lawn and Paul putting together the marquee. We had a bit of detour around town picking up Billy and Lynch and arrived just before the Lions kick off. People were there waiting already and we settled into the business end of the weekend. Beers were opened, the game was watched. Vickery basically cost the Lions the tour in my opinion. Not one solid scrum while he was on. That said I would not want to face "The Beast". It was strange that he got away with such an illegal binding technique though. Great comeback and it made for entertaining rugby. Roberts and O'Driscoll is the best combination of centres in world rugby (I TOLD YOU JOAN! remember what I said was going to happen, it happened step for step on Crofts first try) .

Then we fired up the BBQ, thanks to Paul and Dave for cooking and everyone seemed to get a bite anyway. More beers were consumed before heading for a quick snamh in the canal. Very lovely, the water was savage. Back to Newtown for the most epic game of Garden Download ever. Bmac, Paul, Twomey and Dave basically put on a show for the crowd, big hits, technical grappling, see-saw battles and a dramatic ending. More people arrived and the music and beer all increased. The old Kareoke machine was fired up and amazingly steve didnt dominate! Eventually the decision was made to depart to Costellos and the designated drivers did a job. We only had to get one taxi and it was mahoosive. It fit 8 or 9 of us but thats not all. There was room for people to do pre-club in taxi push ups so that they look mad buff. Not naming any names here but my chest was looking superb in Costellos hahaha. The Costello Phenomenon was great, stayed downstairs for a while and drank the arse out of it. Good laugh. Then went upstairs and the usual amazing music was on. We tried pimping out Ben, danced the crap out of it, made Mongol faces at people and generally had a good time. Some had better times than others.

I had the great idea of inviting everyone back to my house after the club, probably a bad one on reflection. First, we had our priorities straight, Chut was hit up. Then we picked up some very random people who we hadnt met since primary school on the way. We party partied till the very early hours of the morning and most details are blurry. Good times though. Thanks for all that showed up and enjoyed themselves.

The big Two Five!

2009-06-17T09:35:00.002+01:00

What is up my negros? I've been in great form the last while, things are going really well at the minute. I've decieded on a plan of action for the next while and hopefully it works out. I'm not going to tell people coz thats usually the best way to jinx a plan. Its not terribly exciting but I'm looking forward to it.

At the minute the parents are in France living it up so I have the house to myself for a month which is nice. In time honoured tradition I am having the "free house" style party on saturday in case your around. Watch the Lions game, go for a swim if the weather is nice, bbq, beers, play some lips, possibly head to costellos. Should be fun.

The football season is going well, we beat Cork 45-0 there on Sunday, our best ever win over them. Coeny is back and he brought one of his mates Guti with him who is a beast as well. Im back at QB which is well gay but I scored 3 TDs so I cant complain. We have the Rhinos in Munchins in three weeks and then we are into the playoffs. We will almost definately have Carrickfergus at home for the semi and if we beat them we will play the winner of Cork and the Rebels in Belfast on August 9th. I'll keep you abreast of proceedings anyways (not that ye give a shite). I have my balloon knee back, knee bursatitis its called. Its a grand injury, just annoying.

Work is mental at the minute, my boss is on holiday for the week so I'm the acting Quality and Environmental Manager for the entire N7 site for the week. Im getting really awkward questions about Non-conformance reports, method statements, environmental audits for sub-contractors and other fun stuff. Most of it I have answered with a combination of common sense and google hahahaa. Who needs a proper degree??

I remember having interesting stuff to write about on this a few days ago but the topic has gone completely from my head. Stupid head.

Congratulations to Jamie and Hannah

2009-06-05T10:07:00.002+01:00

Jay and Hannah are having their civil union today which makes Jamie my first close friend to get married. I wish the two of them the very best. They are really well suited, obviously in love and I'm absolutely delighted for them. The celebrations are on in the stables afterwards with John O'Sullivan and Jay singing, should be amazing.

Thats the first one anyway, we will all probably start spiralling into a spin of debauchery with weddings, baby births and 30th birthdays all ahead of us all. UUUUUUGHHH :)

huzzah for exercising ones democratic right!

2009-06-05T09:19:00.002+01:00

had a bit of an old vote there today. i was shocked at the crap nature of some candidates on the ballot paper. One guy didnt have a photo and wasnt in a party so all you had was a name to vote on. another guy shouldnt have had a photo. he was striking was im sure he thought was a dynamic and striking pose looking off into the distance. In reality he looked like a scruffy unemployed farmer who was desperate for work and had problems focusing his eyes. I read his manifesto and one of his policies was "to sort out immigrant legislation to make it fairer to honest taxpayers". Ridiculous!

The campaign was pretty shocking, apart from the usual posters i havent seen any activity from candidates. Did any call to your doors? I think they are all scared of what we will say. Especially Fianna Fail who are ashamed to put the party logo on their posters. They got graphic designers to make the logo smaller than usual on their posters.

Feel bad story: A chinese PhD student had her two laptops and harddrive stolen from her house. Every single piece of information from her 4 years of PhD study on HIV was on those and some drug addled scobe in Dublin probably wiped them to sell at a shitty market for a few quid. depressing.

Feel good story: A guy in galway gets laid off. He looks for a job around Galway, no use. He applys for jobs in Dublin and gets a few interviews. Goes up for the day to do the interviews. Brings his wife as the day is sunny. Went for a walk out in Dalkey afterwards and bought a 4 euro quick pick. Last night they won 13 million euro.

Lights over Limerick

2009-05-28T09:14:00.002+01:00

What upski? I dont really have a plan for this post, so lets just see how it goes.

Dubai. It was lots of fun, lovely weather, great hotel, lots to do over there. Its a bit of a mad country though. Definately the fakest place in the world. All around the city is a massive sand desert and the city then is depicted as this plush oasis. There is no natural source of water around so they have to import it or process sea-water. Water costs more there than petrol which is ridiculous. Especially when you take into account there are two water parks and a load of golf courses that use millions of litres of water every year. There are thousands of unfinished or unused buildings all over the city and something like two thirds of the worlds cranes are in Dubai. There is still a lot of building going on but its that that is the worst thing in the country.

The construction teams are huge in number and they work long shifts in 40 degree or more heat. They are mostly Pakistani and Indian men who are promised excellent work in Dubai with good conditions, pay and free time. They move to Dubai and immediately their passports are taken from them and they are taken by bus to a concrete village outside the city. From there they are then taken by bus to whatever construction site they are required to work on for 12 hours a day in the ridiculous heat then bused back. They recieve very little pay and and definately the lower class of citizen in Dubai. The exploitation of these guys is completely ignored by most over there, it is like a fact out of life there. All the locals brag about how quickly buildings are built over there (Tiger Woods Westin Hotel over there was built in 8 months).

The gulf between rich and poor is ridiculous. Our hotel was very posh, Aston Martins, Masteratis and all sorts pulling up outside it. 100 yards away a couple of thousand poor souls were slaving away on another hotel in the sun with no shade let alone air conditioning.

I can see Dubai being held up to future generations as the talisman of the era of wastefulness, exploitation and greed we are in at the minute. I got the impression that the cost of upkeeping the pretense of the Dubai image will become untenable soon and the place will start to fall apart. It may have made more sense to make it a smaller resort type city for millionaires but the scale of the project was over-ambitious in my opinion.

Mood: Tired
Music: Ray D'Arcy talking about how to rob cars.

Back from another lengthy hiatus

2009-05-14T17:04:00.002+01:00

Well hello there my legion of fans. I have decided, under duress from all the fan mail, to kick start mr. bloggo again.

A lot has happened in the last while and I'll try to go back over some stuff.

So I was on the dole for 4 months, it was an experience. Lots of free time, no money and no responsibilities. It was fun but I dont really want to do it again. It has also given me a bit of a kick up the arse with regard the dreaded C (areer) word. Anyways, I'm back working in Birdhill and those sly dogs basically laid me off for four months, let the work pile up and then get me back to work through the backlog without having to pay me for the 4 months. Very smart in these recessionary times.

I got up to a lot over the time actually, Snowboarding in France was great. We rented a camper van in London and drove to Les Deux Alpes which was amazing. The snow conditions were unreal and we carved the crap out of that mountain. Craved Burger King for the entire holiday tho for some reason.

The weekend in Dingle was hands-down the best weekend I've had with the Vikings. Treated like VIPs, great bunch of lads down there, great location, good game, spectacular night out afterwards with the Blue Flame guys. Just a great, great weekend. We lost 22-0 but that was pretty good as no Irish team had held an american team under 50 previously.

The football season is going only OK. We have one loss to the Rebels at home, we lost by 5 points and I threw an interception in the end zone at the very end of the game that could have won it. Very disappointing. We beat the Trojans well and we drew the second Rebels game in a real tough one. We are at the half way point and third in the league. Hopefully we can up it a bit and get the few wins we need to make the playoffs. We have Cork twice and Carrick in Carrick coming up in close succession so those will be big.

I paid a visit to Coentron and Jim Davis in Valencia for an extended weekend back in April as well. Excellent time. The lads are playing semi pro football over there for the Valencia Firebats. They are at a very high level, playing the best teams in Europe. Class to see two Vikings get there and it was great to get over and see the boys. Also it was a kick up the arse for me with regards getting in good shape and being a better football player. So far I have put on a reasonable amount of muscle and am going to the gym regularly. Still at it and starting to enjoy it so its all good.

I'll write about Dubai at some stage. I have a load of shizzle I want to start discussions on as well but as it is nearly time to go home I am out of here.

Later biznatches.

Mood: Fresh start?
Music: Hello, Goodbye. The Beatles.

p.s. BLOG MORE!!

A few football photos... just coz

2008-12-12T11:50:00.002Z

Vikings Defence vs Rebels Offense on our goal-line

I was the happiest man alive to see that ball into my hands

Le Wikings

Christmas time

2008-12-12T11:34:00.002Z

Above is rather camp photo of Conal, Paul and I. I thought I would include it in this post, it seemed to fit. I am having a bit of a nostalgic think about stuff at the minute. Conal is back blogging and the discussion has turned to what shall we do over the Christmas break. I am liking all suggestions at the minute, Settlers of Catan is currently leading the polls but steve has suggested some breed of card game called munchkin. Im as nerdy as the next man so I will play either or, or a complicated hybrid of the two....

So anyways, recession update. I am finished the job on the 19th of December, arse around Clon for the Christmas and then Im off with Elastic Girl on the 27th to London where the plan is to rent a camper van for 10 days, drive to the alps and have a bit of a mini tour down there snowboarding.... Cannot wait!!

I just got a pair of sweet snowboarding boots, i have all the gear ready, its going to be mega. its 9 hours drive from london to the alps so after that it will just be a question of following the snow... Hopefully we dont freeze to death.

The plan when I get back is kind of fuzzy then. Im not sure what the requirements are for getting a grant for the masters I am looking at, if I am required to be on the dole for 6 months beforehand then thats what I'll do. If it is a year or more then I will have to get a job and save my little ass off. That said, I am not dead set on the masters either so if anything else comes my way I am going to take it.

Then there is the football... Any job I get will have to have no weekend work, be in the Limerick area and be 9 to 5. Which cuts down what I can get pretty substatially. Ah well, it isnt every day you get to play the NYPD Finest...

Stupid Recession

2008-12-03T14:31:00.002Z

Well??

So all we have heard the last few months is Recession this, economic slowdown that...

Well the big news this financial quarter is not that there is a 2 billion euro tax shortfall, its that I, Liam Ryan, have been made redundant. I'm finished up at the end of the month. Elaine has convinced me that it is a good thing so I am looking optimistically at it. I have come up with a number of plans and I would appreciate feedback on them if you dont mind...

Plan 1. Try to get another job and get back on the horse.
Plan 2. Try to get a job in a snowboarding resort and be a bum for a while.
Plan 3. Try out for a semi pro football team and see how it goes...
Plan 4. Travel a wee bit, get back, sign on, get a grant and do a Masters in Business Management...

I'm currently leaning towards number 4 but if anyone has any other ideas let me know.

So work is going to be pretty quiet for the next while. Hopefully I'll post up a bit more, I should get photos and stuff up as well. Other than that, the Vikings are going well, we had a intra-squad scrimmage at the weekend and the playbook I have been installing looked to work pretty well and we have kept a lot of players over the semester. We are playing a representative team from the NYPD and Philly PD now in Dingle at the end of February so hopefully we are ready for that....

Mood: trying to sort out my medium term future
Music: Bomberman theme... still stuck in my head...

Stand up and Fight!

2008-11-19T14:05:00.003Z

Last night was the best sporting occasion I have ever witnessed. It was the slick juggernaught of world rugby, the New Zealand All Blacks, against the perennial plucky underdogs, Munster. It was a chance for the All Blacks to avenge the defeat at Munsters hands in 1978 (Im sure your all sick of hearing that) and it was a chance for history to repeat itself for Munster. Good thing it didnt or they would have to rewrite "Alone it Stands". To begin with I thought the whole thing had been hyped up by PR people who were probably greedy to get their hands on this clash of two of the biggest "Brands" in world rugby. The sheer pagentary of the whole thing threatened to overshadow the real business which was of course the rugby. There was obviously a lot of thought and effort put into the pre-game from Brian Cowen struggling to open a curtain to the Air Force chopper dropping the game ball to the pitch.

The 1978 team got a good round of applause when they were mentioned, the All Blacks got a standing ovation as people strained to get a look at the best team in rugby and then when Munster came out I'm pretty sure I heard the roar from Clonlara. There was a minute silence for Shane Geogeghan where the emotion it caused in Limerick could still be seen on the faces of the crowd. I'm sure Shane would have been there and it was a fitting occasion to celebrate him. More on him at a later stage....

Then as Munster lined up to challenge the haka, Rua Tipoki, Litemi Mafi, Dougie Howlett and Jeremy Manning stood forward and performed a "Ka Mate" haka of their own and the foundations of the new Thomond Park were found to be structurally very sound. The noise level dropped to nil in respect for the New Zealand haka and every word could be heard around the stadium. At this stage the hair on the back of my neck was standing up in anticipation for the start of the game. I could only imagine how the guys on the pitch felt. I saw Donnacha Ryan staring it down with a look on his face that can only really be described as murderous. He was in my class in Munchins and its great to see him perform like he did on the big stage.

The game was an intense, hundred mile an hour, whirlwind of big hits, tough rucks, thrills, spills and emotion. I was screaming my head off, jumping up and down for most of it. The Munster effort was superhuman with guys like Niall Ronan, Timmy Ryan, Paul Warwick and Donnacha Ryan filling in for the internationals and giving McGahan plenty of food for thought in the future. We made some silly decisions and should really have got points on the board in the second half which would have won the game but all in all the rugby on show justified all the build up and hullabaloo. Munster did themselves proud but fell just short of a massive upset. The All Blacks blooded in a number of new talents in just about as intense an environment you could get and pulled the win out of the bag. I think if they had lost, Henry would have had to answer a lot of questions once the tour returned back to the Land of the Long White Cloud.

The All Blacks to be fair to them were great ambassadors for their country. Their stars were approachable during the build up to the game, they seemed to realise how important rugby was to the region and they came out after the game and acknowledged the crowd. Their full back fielded one ball at the end of the first half and handed the ball to a young kid in the crowd before walking into the tunnel, a nice gesture that shows that the killers in the black jerseys are human after all.

Mood: Hungry for more rugby, or to get back on the football pitch
Music: STAND UP AND FIGHT UNTIL YOU HEAR THE BELL!!!

Vigilantism: the way forward?

2008-11-11T11:00:00.003Z

A vigilante is a person who ignores due process of law and enacts his own form of justice when he deems the response of the authorities to be insufficient.

I'm sure there are going to be rumblings of this for the next while in Limerick in the aftermath of the shocking and callous murder of Shane Geoghegan on Saturday. I'm sure you all know the story, father of a two year old girl, recently engaged, captain of Garryowen Thirds Rugby, on the way home from watching the match and was gunned down in cold blood because he looked like a drug dealer who lives on that estate. (I love the way that the whole world knows this guy is a drug dealer and yet he is still living a normal life, apart from the occasional visitors).

It is absolutely shocking to think that he was killed in that way and that it could quite easily been any one of us. Its one thing to have gun-men running around the city but to have idiotic, impatient gun-boys is ten times worse. They obviously havent a shred of humanity or intelligence in them. I hope progress in the fight against these gangs comes from his death and that a repeat of this is prevented. I do feel though that there will be an increased Garda presence for a while, a lot of hard talk and then people will forget. Remember Brian Fitzgerald, the bouncer in Docs who was shot dead for not letting drug dealers? Well that was 6 years ago and how much work has been done stopping the gangs? That in a way is more tragic as Brian was making a stand against these guys and was made an example of. Im sure no bouncer in Limerick stops those guys nowadays. Then again who am I to talk, I could identify a couple of drug dealers to the guards, but I havent and I'm sure your all the same. Why dont we say anything? For me its coz i think nothing will come of it or maybe a 2-3 year conviction, the guy knowing I said something and then me being scared for my life pretty much.

I was listening to the last word yesterday and a Green Party TD (didnt catch his name) said that people didnt really care when the gang members were shooting each other up but for someone like this to get shot really showed how bad things have gotten. That in itself is crazy for a TD to be saying but it started me thinking. If the TDs of the country dont care that these guys die, whats stopping the good people of Limerick from stepping in and "resolving the situation" outside the realms of the lawmakers. Many of the gang members are well known around the city, all of them are hated and they are very much outnumbered. What do you think would happen? Would the drug bosses order their men to open fire on the public streets? I dont think it will happen but there is a huge amount of anger, fear and frustration in the area and I'm curious to see how it plays out.

The Mayor of Limerick was calling for increased sentences, a dedicated, armed, undercover task force detailed with destroying the gangs and making gang membership illegal. How likely are these to be implemented though? I suppose the only thing we can realistically do is give out and complain until the government has no option but to implement these measures. So we should try to make some noise on this issue, send a letter, talk to your councillor, anything. Its that, arm the masses, or ignore it and hope its not you the next time.

On a different note, I'm blockaded into work today by contract workers who havent been paid by a different company working on the project. If I dont get lunch I'm going to crack up.

Mood: outraged
Music: the gurgling of my hungry stomach

political rant continued

2008-11-07T16:14:00.002Z

I suppose I'll keep going for the time thats in it. I agree with Pauls comment that the fact that Obama won doesnt mean the world is magically going to fix itself now. I do think that his presidency could be seen as a complete failure but I think he gives the US a more realistic shot as resolving at least some of the issues that are facing them.

Another couple of interesting things to watch during Obamas presidency are...

The emergence of China. China had emerged as a potential superpower before the credit crisis but now it is positioned perfectly to challenge US hegemony in world affairs. Its exchequer has huge amounts of cash and previously had nothing to spend it on but now has a plethora of governments and financial institutions clamouring for capital. China now pretty much has the US by the balls and is in the process of cherry picking prime financial institutions (Goldmann-Sachs) to be bought by Chinese money. I find it really strange that capitalist USA is demanding more control of Wall Street and is trying to give the state more control in private financial companies while "Communist" China is busy trying to buy up the prime movers and shakers in the capitalist world.

Vladamir Putin, or whatever his puppets name is. Russia is like a wounded wasp at the minute. It is a very proud country, fallen on hard times and has been given hope by a charismatic nationalistic leader who glorifies military action. Similar figures in history would be Bismark, Hitler, Alexander the Great. Ok Putin has only caused a few small wars but the Georgian action and the recent declaration that Russia would be putting nuclear capable missiles on the EU border. Its brinksmanship that is almost certainly timed to let Obama know that Russia is still worthy of some of his CIA briefing time at least. With Putin you just dont know, he is the most Machievellian political player in world politics today and he seems to have a mandate to do pretty much anything he wants. Oh sorry, he is only the Prime Minister, the President calls all the shots, MY ARSE!!

On another note, I got a ticket to Ireland vs Canada in Thomond this weekend!! WOOP WOOP!!

Mood: I WANNA GO HHHOOOMMEE!!!
Music: Declan O'Rourke, Sarah

Physical Therapy

2008-11-06T10:27:00.002Z

So I had another appointment with Hartmann yesterday and it went pretty well. He said I'm still on track for a full recovery and I should be 100% by January. All I have to do is a really intense workout program 3 days a week for the next 3 months :(

no its good stuff though and I got up early this morning, did my stretches, even grabbed a bite to eat. i need to buy a medicine ball and ankle weights so im using that as an excuse to shop for that and other stuff online. damn it!!

saving is well hard, especially when there is so much stuff I could buy and use. stupid internet, stupid credit card, stupid liam.

Have to say I'm pleased with how the American election went and I'm curious to see how Obama does with all these expectations on him. He has crippling debt, an economy in recession and two wars to extricate himself from. A show I was watching last night called it a "shit burger" and that things had got so bad that Americans were emailing Nigerian Princes trying to scam them. I see Obama being helped by the new confidence that his Administration will inspire, which will help to remedy the economic issues. The debt issue will be partially resolved by his policy of taxing the super rich and the multi-nationals with HQs in the States but plants across the world. I noticed the NFL players and pro golfers were wary of Obama taking power coz their wages will be cut in half. Still, 5 million a year should be fine to keep them ticking over...

On the wars, I dont know how America pulls out of Iraq without leaving a power vacuum that will inevitably be filled by an extremist government. I think remaining in the country for the time being is necessary but tone down the military aspect of the mission. As it stands its basically a rallying point for any Muslim extremist in the area, a training ground where there are plenty of targets and no real way to be identified as a threat unless your caught red-handed with a weapon. It should be changed to a training program for Iraqi police and army, installing the mechanisms of power and winning hearts and minds of the Iraqi people through peaceful measures. Sounds fierce gay but the type of war the states are fighting is impossible to win. I think once the Administrations switch over that policy will be a lot more palatable coming from Obama whereas from Bush it would have been an unacceptable step back from his fire and brimstone rhetoric outlined in the National Security Strategy. Its possible that if the British and Americans concentrate on that style of pull out that there could be a democratic framework in place in a year or two. How robust that will be remains to be seen and with a nuclear Iran beside it how long will it last?

Afghanistan is a mess. The place has basically been at war since the 1970's. They dont really care who they are shooting at. Since America moved in poppy cultivation has expanded exponentially as they are seen as much more leniant than the Taliban who executed people routinely. I suppose America is trying to take away the possibility of another attack on their homeland but the longer this goes on the more grievences they will cause and the harder it will be to resolve the clash in cultures. Do you think we will ever see a round table talk where we will have Western political leaders and the heads of the Muslim extremism movement sit down and try to thrash out the problems that they face.

I see it as being something like when Derek meets Hansel in Zoolander.....

Mood: Musing
Music: very loud hoover right beside me grrrrrrrrrr

London, pirates, straight edge living

2008-11-04T11:50:00.003Z

Well, London 08 was pretty amazing. Loud and obnoxious maybe, but fun. We bumped into the Dublin Rebels, the team we beat in the Bowl game this year and pleasantries were exchanged. I may have spilt some of their beers though. Whoopsie daisyies. The game itself was amazing, lots of offense, lots of TDs and plenty of beer, hot dogs and cheerleaders. Sure what more would you want? Brees picked the Chargers D apart at crucial times and hit some really nice passes, not least to Lance Moore for a TD right in front of us. Rivers and LT also put on a show and the game went down to a hail mary pass at the end which was tipped away for a Saints win. Good times apart from everything that James Twomey did coz he is from Cork.

Halloween was next on the agenda and we went out to a party in Elaines house in Shannon. I was Zorro, Paul was John McClane as he kept telling everyone and there was actually a great standard of costume. Apart from the pirates which were shite :).
Ended up going to the Knights in Shannon which was definately better the second time around. It wouldnt have been hard. Great night though..

Two hard weekends have taken their toll on me though so im on for some straight edge living now for a while. This means, healthyish food, no drinking, earlyish to bed, lots of water and doing my core/stretching program. Yesterday went well as I did all of the above and I was assisted by the arrival of Madden 09 last night from eBay. I have begun on the slippery slope of buying stuff online, i have it under control for the time being anyway. I also bought the new Kings of Leon album and Declan O'Rourkes most recent effort. I must have a look around my room and see what junk I could sell off for a profit on eBay..... Anyone got any tips for using eBay as I would be very interested?

Coaching is going well, we have half of the offensive playbook installed and most of the guys know it. Just getting people comfortable with the plays and situations now and then we can learn more after Christmas. We still have great numbers and are picking up new guys all the time.

Mood: straight edge
Music: the theme song to mega-bomberman is stuck in my head from 10 hours playing over the weekend.

So it turns out.....

2008-10-23T10:53:00.002+01:00

It was a dream all along!!

Ok major updates, I am going to London this weekend for an NFL game, should be amazing. Good crowd of us going, I just hope I get paid beforehand or there will be trouble.

Halloween is the weekend after, I think Elaine is hostess with the mostess. must get a costume from somewhere.

I am thinking of going to the States for 10 days at the end of November or that kind of time. 500 euro for a multi-city flight, would you be without a multi-city flight like?

I feel myself getting dragged into researching the economics and politics of the global recession, there is a guy in work, Mark, that researches it non-stop and he has shown me some really interesting sites and topics. We usually sit down for 20 minutes a day and discuss the latest developments. Yesterday was about how the US is extending its No Visa entry policy to 6 Eastern European Countries and South Korea. This basically means citizens can now go to the States for 90 days and try to find work. If they find work they stay. If not they go home. By sheer coincidence 5 of the 6 and South Korea are all in the worst economic positions (similar to Iceland which recently declared itself bankrupt) in that they have a dependance on foreign investment, a weak currency and huge national debt.

Is America trying to prevent the economies from crashing by providing employment for some workers who will inevitably send money home or are they getting ahead of the pack by cherry picking workers before the economys crash and unemployment soars?

Who knows?? Not I anyway but it makes for interesting breaks in work..

strange mood swings

2008-09-22T15:40:00.002+01:00

hello!

i had the strangest mood swing between saturday and sunday that I felt it deserved mentioning. Saturday was a great day, spent in Lahinch with Louise, surfing and eating, two of my favorite things to do really. The weather was great, the surf was excellent and I got up on a good few waves. I was in bed early enough and got a good sleep.

I woke up on Sunday in the foulest humour imaginable, cantankerous and prickly to everyone I met, Louise and my Dad mostly. The weather was equally good, I hadnt messed anything up, nothing put me in a bad mood, I just woke up and was under a cloud all day. Do you think that your brain is programmed to be in a bad mood once in a while so you fully appreciate good moods, am i programmed to enjoy bad weather now as it is the norm or even more sinister do you only have a limited amount of good moodness and I used it all on Saturday?

The good news is that I am back on planet Liam, not too grumpy not too happy.

Mood: Slightly ashamed of my behaviour
Music: Klaxons for the next blast in the quarry.

X's and O's

2008-09-17T13:07:00.003+01:00

Last weekend was the most informative, interesting and intensive weekend I have had in a long long time. The Coaching Clinic began with a number of lectures from the Great Britain Lions International American Football Team. There was a variety of topics covered from "the 4-4 Defence" to "How to Build a Successful Programme". I gathered a lot of info from them. Then on Saturday we did the classroom courses and I am now a certified Assistant Coach. I picked up a lot of coaching skills that are applicable to any sport and a lot of football knowledge. Then on Sunday we did practical coaching where we had to coach players in the drills we had learnt.

The UL Vikings then returned to train for the three in a row on Monday and I was in my new position as Offensive Co-Ordinator coaching away to my hearts content. I got a great buzz out of it to be honest so Im looking forward to the rest of the pre-season. Its my job to put in place a new, more intelligent system for running our offense for the forseeable future. I have the playbook and the system but I have to get comfortable with it before I start teaching it to people.

I was elected as Secretary of the Irish American Football Coaches Association there so I think I'm in it for the long haul. Expect more on this topic in the future.

We have our second session tonight now so looking forward to see what new players we have and how many of the guys we had stuck around.

Mood: Thinking in X's and O's
Music: 70,000 Words by Niall Connolly.

BAFCA Level 1

2008-09-11T11:28:00.004+01:00

So this weekends adventure is to DCU where I am doing a British American Football Coaching Association course to certify me as a Level 1 coach. Its looking really interesting with a former NFL Europe Coach and a couple of international team coaches there to give their advice and expertise. Its really an area that needed work with the Vikings and hopefully having people with coaching qualifications will help to keep the run we are on going strong. Myself and Les are going up tomorrow until Sunday evening.

We signed up 100 or so rookies last night so by the law of fresher averages we should have 40 or so at Mondays training session. We only finished our season last month, it seems like madness to go back training but we have no choice in order to get new players in every year. Im going to stay strictly coaching coz my leg needs the rest to get back to full strength.

The Hartmann treatment is going well, I now have over 100% flexibility where 100% is normal and I am working on a core strengthening program. Being at home isnt really the best for doing the program but I am doing it most nights anyway. It really is the best treatment I have ever recieved or even heard of. It looks at root causes and factors in how your body moves in injuries rather than treating symptoms. Fair enough I have been told that the leg wont be fully 100% for about 15 months but in that time I am fully confident I will be able to move better than before the injury occurred.

On the car side of things, my MX-5 is still sitting there useless at home, I really must sell that at some stage. My dad is buying himself a new car so I am going to get his old one once he makes the purchase. This last week has been the annoying time in between cars where I have to ask for lifts or borrow my mums car. I feel 18 again from that perspective.

Oh, since looking at a student architect's study of the idea of the fence I've come to the conclusion that I have become brain dead since leaving college. His ideas were really varied, thought provoking and different and his photography was unreal. Jealous?? ME?? Ye would probably laugh at me if I put something like that together.
Also Louise and Paul are back in college this week and Conal is doing law stuff and Lia did her beauty and massage course so I'm jealous of all their new knowledge. Time to get cracking on my own further study methinks.

Mood: so-so
music: none, stupid work

scuba diving

2008-09-02T15:19:00.004+01:00

ok so im officially a fan of scuba diving. we only got to about 4 meters on our short (30 minute) dive but it was a great feeling and definately something I would do again. i'd highly recommend going up to Kilkee dive club on a saturday morning and doing the introduction course. we were fully briefed on what to do and expect and everything was handled really professionally and myself or coeny never felt in danger. its only €60 and its definately worth it for the feeling of weightlessness and breathing underwater.

we are looking at doing the PADI course at some stage, once i get money together i suppose. €500 and once you have that your qualified to dive anywhere in the world. definately must be done if im going to see the great barrier reef.

anywho, im after moving home to clonlara after 3 years away which I am enjoying at the minute. peace and quiet, good food and the family are always good. im sure i'll be giving out about it soon though. my car is dead so dad is contemplating giving me his car, which would be very sweet.

Shamrock Bowl XXII

2008-08-22T12:40:00.004+01:00

Well we won it, just about. 14-12 was the final score. absolute cracker of a game, you can see the report on www.shamrockbowl.com

we had a great crowd there, really lifted us towards the end of the game. thanks to everyone who came down to see us, hope ye enjoyed yourselves. to those that didnt come down, you suck at life!!

so now im just settling down to a bit of time off and R&R. need to get my leg right and chill out a bit.

myself coeny and les are heading off scuba diving tomorrow which should be a good laugh, hopefully there are no sharks.

3 consecutive all ireland finals

2008-07-28T17:19:00.003+01:00

ya so we won our semi-final against belfast pretty comfortably in the end. 42-8 was the final score. now we have the dastardly Rebels in the Shamrock Bowl. Its on in the newly built CIT Stadium, Sunday August 10th. Kick off is at 2pm. Tell your friends and bring a massive crowd of really loud people if you can at all.

in other news ive moved back down to oaklawns, lou, paul, gaff and lisa are my new housemates. very lovely.

Music: JJ
Mood: fuzzy brain from football hits

Saints, Engineers, Ikea and tubes.

2008-07-04T12:00:00.003+01:00

ahoy mateys, the best fertilizer for Blogging is definately boredom, the amount of blogging done by a person is directly proportionate to their levels of boredom at the time. I am a bit bored in work today so I have decieded to impart my wisdom to the internet so all can benefit.

Its been a weird few months. Football season has kicked off, we are in the semi-finals but we lost to the Rebels again the other week which pisses me off. We still haent beaten them even though we are well better than they are at this stage. We are playing the DCU Saints this weekend which is always a fun game. We are running flea flicker first play again I think.

I quit the recruitment job in June as it was really stressing me out and I want to do some further study. So I am checking my options at the minute but its looking like Online Marketing through the Fitzwilliam Institute. Any opinions or suggestions about what I should study, or how I should do it will be taken on board.

I am now working on the new Limerick Nenagh Dual Carrigeway which is a good laugh actually. Im working with a load of engineers making sure that work that they say is done is actually done. Its kind of hard to explain but its grand work. I may be moving on to a three day week soon as well which would be sweet, give me time to study and enjoy myself. Paul is going back doing a masters, lou is going back for the whole hog so why shouldnt I?? Conal and Steve can be our role models that our parents ask why cant we be more like them?

So Im finishing up in the house at the end of the month as well so its a time for change all round. I dont know what to do, move home for a while which would let me save money, get a crap house in the Troy and have a laugh there for another year or move into an Ikea filled, well decorated haven which will eat up all of my money but be a lovely place to be.

My leg has been at me still, I got my MRI and it turns out its a torn abductor muscle in my groin. At the minute im on the waiting list for Dr.Hartmann in Limerick and if that doesnt work its Cortizone injections and surgery for me. boooooearns!!

An offshoot of this leg injury is that I havent been hitting the tubes as often as I would like. We did go up to fanore the other day but the waves were not tubes, they were giant scary walls. hopefully i can get this sorted, then the summer will arrive and I can go surfing 4 days a week!!

Mood: got that friday feeling
Music: Journey

Fiscal matters

2008-02-26T17:25:00.003Z

I am getting preoccupied with money and its bugging me. Im spending too much and doing too little and worrying about it a lot. I think thats what happens when you start working full time you start spending more money on stupid stuff and get pissed off coz you have nothing lasting to show for it. For example my outgoings this month will be in the region of 1300 euro before food/drink/petrol/heat. I mean what am i spending it on? it is a particularly bad month for the car, paying for parts, tax renewal, insurance renewal all those fun things. maybe if i just pawn it off on some silly bugger.

anyone want to buy a car??

no, on that note, i dont want to be so concerned with money and there is a couple of ways of dealing with that
A. earn more money by working harder and getting more people placed and more commission (probably a logical one but not one suiting my current state of mind)
B. earn less money, work in a hippy commune or something and reduce my expectations (possibly live on a beach and eat pineapples)
C. become a subsistence farmer and live in a wigwam.

on another note I got 14 people jobs this month.

Music: Listening to the sound of my knees/leg muscles creak after training last night
Mood: happy go lucky after a fantastic lunch cooked by lou

Snowboarding

2008-02-21T16:12:00.003Z

I can’t wait. Paddies Day we are off to Salzburg for a week of radical powder and off the hook adventures. Even just to have a week where I don’t have to do any work will be good. I’m feeling stressed at the minute, worked a 12 hour day yesterday, got home, passed out on the couch, tried to play some computer games but my vision went kind of swimmy. Which isn’t good. Added to the fact that I seem to have less money now than ever before I am not overly happy at the minute. I did just see Combat Zone advertising for Sales Reps and Game Marshals, that would be a sweet job. Maybe ill just have to recruit myself for it.

In other news my leg is still screwed and the football season is looming large so I am going to have to get something drastic done to fix it. The physio said that it might possibly be a hernia but I hope not to be honest. It probably isn’t if I have been able to manage so far.

Puuuuaal I hope your minding yourself over there, not letting those gringo people feed you bat poo and steal your food. And keep an eye on those photographers, they are looking for paparazzi style profit making shots paul and they will ruin your future political career. Steer away from Colombians called Carlos as well.

Ive been emailing Coeny and Marc all day about the football team, its actually scary how much we want to just get started.

Mood: excited about football
Music: the pitter patter of my keyboard (good title for a song actually)

got to love the resolutions.

2008-02-18T13:48:00.002Z

I resolved to blog more and my last blog was..... 2nd of January. I had a pretty hectic month or so ive been working flat out and doing really well at the minute, im working on targets and ive been over double my target for the last two months. which is pretty sweet and they pay pretty well. so ive been thinking about what my medium term plans are. im still undecieded on what way im going to do things. I do want to get out and see a bit more of the world. i dunno if i would do the whole year long thing, might go on a couple of months holiday rather than working for the year. i know steve and conal want to go to Tokyo but ive done that shizzle already. i dunno, we shall see what becomes of it.

other than that it is all quiet on the western front at the minute. conal is studying, me and stevent are working our bums off, lou is....well.... lou. oh ya, this is for paul, kevin halley died this week.

Mood: sticky in work Music: Soulja Boy stuck in my head.

Viva la France!

2008-01-02T16:01:00.000Z

that was a lovely little holiday, it ticked all the boxes for a good trip away. good company, good food, great wine, fist fights with algerians, great scenery. many thanks to amanda and benj for putting us up and being the hostesses with the mostesses. conal was loving the whole being back in france thing anyway and steve embraced the french culture like twere his own. and joan and dave are heroes. it was really nice to just head away and get a few days with the lads and lasses. lyon is lovely and apart from the algerians i would highly recommend it.

new years was spent very randomly heading down to ballybunion in the boot of walshies car to find the whole town dressed in fancy dress. it was a good old night, chatting with the boys and singing a few songs.

Ill think of a few new years resolutions to not stick to in a while and put them up.

i just birthed an air angel!!!

2007-12-31T00:06:00.000Z

so im here in france having the last few beers after a great few days and joan is looking over my shoulder so im feeling supervised. BOF is the only word that has stuck in my mind from a year of learning french. amanda is being a ghoul!!!

When I was 23, it was a very good year....

2007-12-20T09:03:00.002Z

Ok i know this may come as a surprise to all but ive decieded to blog once more. fair enough it is 9 o clock in work and im already looking for things to distract me coz i want the christmas break to just arrive now at this stage. ok its been so long since ive blogged i cant possibly update my whole life since. a few quick highlights and lowlights are:

Highlights
1. winning the shamrock bowl with the vikings (got a tattoo to commemorate it)
2. going to japan for a few weeks and going up Mt. Fuji
3. getting a posh new high powered job
4. getting a posh old high powered car(its on the mend again)
5. drunken calls from paul in new zealand at ridiculous hours of the day
6. finally becoming a male model
7. Alabama 3 playing in dolans, what a legend of a night.
8. My cousin Louise's wedding
9. France with the family for christmas
10. Surfing and living the casino lifestyle in Biarritz
11. Seeing an NFL game in the flesh in Wembley stadium.
12. Jumping the bridge

Lowlights
1. breaking up with lou
2. My cousin Ciaran and my granny and grandaunt dying within two weeks of each other
3. Missing the away cork match during the season and the home one being forfeited messing up our perfect season.
4. my ongoing bad luck with cars
5. realising that i am becoming old and not wanting to go out all the time
6. still being in debt

Im getting quite reflective on the last year or so at the moment, and it was a good one. Now i feel that a lot of people are moving on and its kind of a last hurrah before we all move in different directions and become all gay with significant others and real jobs and stuff. Ive also realised im a big fan of lists. More to follow soon my pretties!

Annual 'UGH' post rebels match blog

2006-04-03T15:58:00.000+01:00

UGGGGHHHHH i feel like death.

we got beaten by the rebels 24-6 yesterday which sucked. i did however get a 100 yard interception return for a touchdown which was nice. im messed up today between knocks taken in the game, drink taken after the game and this shitty flu that everyone has at the moment. the rebels are a dirty pack of shits who pounded us into submission. i dont like them at all.

we beat the dragons the week before 12-0 in the muddiest game in living history, it was impossible to tell who was on what team unless they were facing in the right direction. unreal. mudslides and mudangels were all busted out.

we went out to killaloe on saturday to have a picnic, show chris the area and watch the rugby. leinster and munster kicked huge amounts of bottom and the picnic was delish, all in all one of the better days ive had recently. followed by one of the worst days ive had recently, there was unpleasantness in the hurlers when we got home too just to add insult to injury. its karma i tells you.

Vikings Uber Alles

2006-03-24T19:35:00.000Z

ok this blog thing is being ignored completely by everyone, i personally blame bebo, its taking over the world. half a million irish people are members of it, out of 22 million members worldwide and we are the most active members too. its crazy.

anyways just to recap on the last few weeks, got the fyp in, twas grand. had a good rag week, not spectacular but much fun was had by all. then the fun started. the Vikings have become a powerhouse this year. we beat the bulls, last years league winners, 20-0. then last weekend we beat DCU in the first ever intervarsity game 58-0. unreal. the team has really gelled and we got new gear so things are looking up. we have the dragons week in limerick which should be fun. all i can think about is football, college has fallen by the wayside. i keep comin up with plays and thinkin about the strengths and weaknesses of the teams we are going up against.

meh

sorry bout the lack of posting, blame the Fuckin Ya Project

2006-03-06T14:44:00.000Z

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

mind map shizzle

2006-02-20T15:44:00.000Z

Arena

(known to self and others)

brave, confident, extroverted, intelligent, spontaneous

Blind Spot

(known only to others)

calm, cheerful, clever, energetic, friendly, giving, happy, independent, proud, relaxed, silly, trustworthy, warm, witty

Façade

(known only to self)

complex

Unknown

(known to nobody)

able, accepting, adaptable, bold, caring, dependable, dignified, helpful, idealistic, ingenious, introverted, kind, knowledgeable, logical, loving, mature, modest, nervous, observant, organised, patient, powerful, quiet, reflective, religious, responsive, searching, self-assertive, self-conscious, sensible, sentimental, shy, sympathetic, tense, wise

Dominant Traits

83% of people agree that liom is confident
66% of people think that liom is friendly

All Percentages

able (0%) accepting (0%) adaptable (0%) bold (0%) brave (16%) calm (16%) caring (0%) cheerful (33%) clever (33%) complex (0%) confident (83%) dependable (0%) dignified (0%) energetic (50%) extroverted (33%) friendly (66%) giving (16%) happy (33%) helpful (0%) idealistic (0%) independent (16%) ingenious (0%) intelligent (16%) introverted (0%) kind (0%) knowledgeable (0%) logical (0%) loving (0%) mature (0%) modest (0%) nervous (0%) observant (0%) organised (0%) patient (0%) powerful (0%) proud (16%) quiet (0%) reflective (0%) relaxed (16%) religious (0%) responsive (0%) searching (0%) self-assertive (0%) self-conscious (0%) sensible (0%) sentimental (0%) shy (0%) silly (50%) spontaneous (50%) sympathetic (0%) tense (0%) trustworthy (16%) warm (16%) wise (0%) witty (16%)

Created by the Interactive Johari Window on 20.2.2006, using data from 6 respondents.
You can make your own Johari Window, or view liom's full data.

football time is coming, its like the holidays, only better

2006-02-06T19:33:00.000Z

the second semester is a time for normal people to settle down and try to recover some QCA lost in the first one of the year but for the elite few its when football kicks off. im getting all excited about it now, we just ordered a load of gear in preparation for it, started back training and all the talk last night was about the upcoming season. two new teams, a saturday night game under lights, first game against other college opposition, playing the admirals, it has all the makings of an interesting season anyway. the photo captures the integral spirit of the team, thats me in preseason fitness training right there.

its week non-existent and im in the library

2006-01-31T16:56:00.001Z

im down in the UL library during the 3 weeks off and im studying, what the hell is going on? most of my course is here too, smelly FYP. i did actually make some progress on it though so im happy.

to the person with the sarcastic wit in the comment on the last post, fie to you. im the manliest manly thing that has ever been created. chuck norris is afraid of me.

spain was amazing, exactly what i needed. we didnt even go out all week, just drank in lou's apartment, ate lots and cabbaged. we headed out to the thermal spa, checked into a posh hotel and chilled out there for a while. which was nice. i think we are going to see 'just friends' in the cinema tonigh though, i hope she isnt trying to give me any not so subtle hints. maybe i should give her a book 'its not you, its me'.

anyways we got back on saturday night and surprised lia who was going to argentina the morning after for 6 months, she hadnt a clue. she nearly burst out crying when lou arrived it was so cute.

ok top photo is the girls at lias going away party the second one is me drinking sex on the beach from a pineapple which was a peace offering from lou who not only failed to meet me at the airport but also didnt get to the bus station on time. what a slut. and the third one is us being gay, my apologies but i think its an extremely presentable photo of the lady (hope she hasnt started reading this, if so HI DAD!!). i ended up going to costellos and having a manly night and meeting the hughes once again. he is good people. C H I C K E N SPACE H U T chicken hut kicks ass!!!!

espana

2006-01-23T15:07:00.000Z

heading off to spain for the week tomorrow to see louise and escape the dreaded FYP for a few days. should be lots of laughs, we are heading to some spa for the health giving properties. finished the exams without much of a problem, no exam was fucked up anyways. got pretty lucky with the questions that came up and got by on the little study i did. had a bit of a celebration saturday night after the pretty spectacular munster match. it was a great night, elimination beer jenga is one of the most competetive games in the world. unreal.

my life as a pirate

2006-01-17T14:22:00.000Z

sunday night, we just got out of dolans after seeing homeland, and i suddenly find myself scaling the gate to the limerick docks and then i magically find myself on a ship bound for portugal. pity i couldnt find a snug place to settle in and then i could have become a stowaway and used my massive amounts of charisma and guile to get the captain to submit to my demands and take to flying the jolly roger and looting and pillaging. it would have been unreal. sadly the fish robbers had posted sentries and intercepted me on my way round the ship. they also were in cahoots with the irish because to greet my return to dry land were a bunch of landlubber policemen. i escaped unscathed, using the previously mentioned charisma and a oft practiced dock road custom. exchanging handjobs for freedom in case your not in the know. then i proceeded to play huge amounts of nba jam in preparation for an exam i had today which went pretty well given the amount of study i did. good times.

my course is a joke
music: explosions in the sky
mood: invincible!

best souvenier ever!

2006-01-09T13:49:00.000Z

thursday night me and chris managed to rob a floorboard from mollys bar in town. it was unreal. now im sitting in the library dying of the flu and trying to get study done for my exam on wednesday. its quite difficult when you havent slept in days. ah well, the old HPSS motto of MEH will come in useful in the coming week or two

xbox 360s indian food and beeeeer

2006-01-04T18:34:00.000Z

a fine night is planned, me and mike are renting call of duty2, playing that and madden06 on his xbox and eating indian food and drinking cobra beer. who needs to study when your life is this good already?

new years was a lot of fun, went to fanore with paul, joan, dave, conal, steve, laura, kerrin, chris and yvonne. it was a nice chilled out night, played board games, cards, ate a load, drank a load and had general good fun.

ive got myself a ladyfriend, im sure you have all heard about it and ive heard all the 'i told you so' and 'about fucking time' comments so feic off you pile of pooheads, im happy, leave me be.

i found the best comic ever, im not a fan of comics but Bear is the best of a bad bunch. its the funniest thing ive ever read. see it here:

http://www.slavelabor.com/bear_prev/bear_prev.html

im in work and not in the mood to do anything so im just lazing about on the internet, best employee ever. its danis birthday on friday, mollys is the plan so if anyone is reading this, head in there or be scorned till you die from it.

more nerdy tests

2005-12-21T10:58:00.000Z

My Purity Report - Compared to Others

festive frolics

2005-12-21T09:31:00.000Z

its ok i am still alive dont worry. ive been in foul humour and havent had internet access or time to think as can be seen from my last post. well now the semester is over, i am bored in work and im WAAY more cheered up for some reason. i know why, and some of you know too. so its the run in to christmas at the moment, the pogues make their annual appearance on the radio and work gives me lots of free booze. just unpacked 250 hampers with a bottle of vodka, bacardi, two bottles of wine and two boxes of chocolate in every one. that is a LOT of alcomahol, which didnt really help after being all drunky last night. im really pleased with the presents i got people, it showed that my brain still functions which is always handy to know. well stevie is finished coop, nestor is back from spain(i wouldnt know of course) and conal is rearing his ugly head for the holidays. pity paul is fucking off to sunnier climes or the whole cool gang could get together. i got up this morning at 7 and came to work, ive no idea why but at least ill have some money now.

id better go and do something in this smell hole, oooooooo i just broke ass. and it smells of beer. mmmm

damn everybody

2005-12-13T13:16:00.000Z

damn you all with you lack of posting, damn college for making me all busy and not able to post, damn work for not paying me enough so i can get broadband and could post all the time, damn paul for still being alive.

koka noodles!!

2005-11-30T20:59:00.000Z

ok i feel like i should post about last night, watched the second season of scrubs, got drunken phone calls, had a romantic walk, climbed trees, looked for the most inventive place to cook koka noodles at 5 in the morning, started drinking at 7 in the morning, jumped into bed with two other guys and now im in the library paying for it all.

productivity rules

2005-11-24T16:57:00.000Z

ok, i went to stuff this week and i did my history essay. im so proud. i wish i was heading off to spain with eoin though, we would double team nestor to death.

nothing major happening, getting the head down and doing some work, recovering from groove armada on friday night. i hear it was good, in not sure.

london calling

2005-11-17T16:51:00.000Z

ok the last time i posted about london blogger ate it and i was so pissed off that i didnt blog for a couple of weeks. this time im not going to write the thesis that i would have done back when i was young and innocent. im just going to say that it was amazing, savage.

now its high time that i get some work done.

hooooorah!

2005-11-14T13:32:00.000Z

nice one, passed the driving test first time im delighted. thanks to all for the good karma and images of crossed penises. thanks also to triona for hosting a rather spectacular celebration of her birth on saturday night. there was great entertainment for everyone and very good food. twas a really good 21st actually, a lot of the groups of people knew each other and mixed a lot unlike most 21sts. the band were pretty good too.

paul-cam is continuing its disturbing coverage of his orgy of drugs drink and girls. ill sell the footage to the star when he becomes famous.

soooo.... alter bridge tomorrow, should be good enough.

music: that cheezy 'love generation' song on the radio in work
mood: pleased at the fun bein had, pissed off at myself for not doing work

personality graft

2005-11-11T23:30:00.000Z

ok get this, paul dragged me out drinking on tuesday night. against my wishes. paul. not only that but he then proceeded to get drunk last night, is going out tonight and tomorrow night. i on the other hand have been tucked up in bed, working or getting ready for my driving test, which incidentally is tomorrow. hope i pass the fucker coz ive had the worst day ever today so i think im owed some good karma for tomorrow. everyone have their fingers and penises, where applicable, crossed. what i want to know is, WHATS GOING ON IN THE WORLD TODAY?? what have you done with paul?

oh, i also made louise an honorary member of the Irish Glaucoma Patients Agency. dont ask.

overload

2005-11-09T09:38:00.000Z

i think most people work better under pressure, they get the finger out and get some good work done. i used to be one of those people. now i just have so much to do that i just shut down all body functions and do nothing. its like a play dead defence mechanism but i dont think its going to fool UL sadly. i want to be on co-op again where the living was easy. damn you steve.

update: i think this took down my blog for a few days, hopefully its fixed now. if your reading this it probably is.

religious ideas

2005-11-04T11:51:00.000Z

ive actually been discussing and thinking about religion and morality a lot recently. i think this does capture my beliefs pretty well.

Your ideals mostly resemble that of a Humanist. Although you do not have a lot of faith, you are devoted to making this world better, in the short time that you have to live. Humanists do not generally believe in an afterlife, and therefore, are committed to making the world a better place for themselves and future generations.

0% scientific.
60% reason-oriented.

waste of life

2005-11-04T11:12:00.000Z

its official. i am a waste of life.

well babycakeses

2005-10-25T17:16:00.000+01:00

had a good old weekend, sat on the boybandass chair with paul for most of friday night, sadly it didnt take another victim. went to mundy saturday night which was savage and ohio chris came over sunday night. the whole not drinking thing didnt really go as planned, ah well it was the weekend. much fun was had and i was getting free drink so who was i to say no?

mundy was recording the gig for a live album so he busted out all the big songs, i even had the decency to ring amanda during 10,000 miles from harm but she was off gallivanting somewhere. silly girl, you should be waiting with baited breath beside the phone, just in case.

kareoke

2005-10-21T11:37:00.000+01:00

joan got a kareoke machine and tomorrow night its going to get a good going over. not sure if ill bother with the whole not drinking thing, we shall see. should be fun though. pa is gone to read up on his bible in preparation, you dirty dirty boy. good tactics though and if you succeed, maybe there was something good to come from the bible.

i got paid bonuses today, which is nice. now i can eat and have credit and other such luxuries again, YAY!

music: none coz my smelly earphones are broken again.
mood: reasonably good, just handing up my first chapter of FYP, which is nice.

New Paltz

2005-10-19T10:03:00.000+01:00

i realised recently that the last time i saw leaves fall, i was in new paltz. its strange that it was only a year ago. it feels like a world away. i got '10,000 miles from harm' by mundy off paul and its that song above any other that reminds me of the place. i got post off annie duffy yesterday too, a lovely t-shirt from the new paltz international office, which was nice. im still in touch with a lot of people from my time there, actually i regret not getting over there this summer.

our new housemate is anything but a quiet little first year. the last two nights she has been flaming and in the lodge. she is pretty funny actually, emma is her name. she fell up and down the stairs in the five minutes i was talking to her, which is pretty good going. i have had no inclination to drink at all this week, its mad. i think i am becoming a big softie, next thing you know i will be buying scented candles and dyeing my hair. bought them last night and paul did my hair at the weekend. im even getting worried. is someone putting female hormones into my food or something??

im off to a lecture in a bit and then im getting stuck into my FYP for the day, tis going to be class. then its off to train the silly UL Vikings at 6 and then we have a tablequiz at 8 in the sports bar. actually anyone around UL tonight could they possibly call up. we are sponsored by powerade and we have class prizes so it would be well worth it.

music: thomas leeb, asokera
mood: active

Home, freeloading

2005-10-15T13:42:00.001+01:00

ok i get a chance to do a decent blog now coz im back at home for the weekend and me and the internet can get some alone time (no not in that way conal and pa). my mother just left there for new york for the week with her two sisters and one of her nieces. i gave her a big shopping list of stuff to get so i should have some pimpin clothes in a week. although knowing her ill be dressing like my dad for the rest of the semester. i bleached the shizzle out of my hair last night coz it was just there, it looks pretty cool. we had a savage DVD night last night, Sin City (which got better on the second viewing) and Hitchhikers' guide to the galaxy which i hadnt seen. i thought it was a really good adaptation of the books, its tough to get five books into a feature length film but i thought the director did a really good job especially when you take into account it was his first film. it was visually fantastic and i love the material, especially when the nukes turn into the whale and the bowl of petunias.

next week will be a quiet time for liam, i have FYP stuff due on friday and i only have 50 quid for the week so ill train, work, study and go to college for the week. im getting a fat pay cheque on friday so ill be on for more stuff then, although i should save for Alter Bridge in london, i cant wait. actually ive become disillusioned with the whole alcohol thing recently. this is a text message i wrote myself when i was walking down to dads car yesterday

i realised something while dodging through the broken glass bottles in oaklawns. Students are one of many collections of people, many of whom take mind altering drugs to escape the inadequacies of their personalities. Why alter your mind, isn't it good enough as is? Alcohol is seen as a way to meet people you dont know and to open up to people you do know and to enjoy such mundane things as soccer matches and the lodge. Why cant everyone realise these simple facts and move on to healthier pasttimes. Grades would go up, clubs and socs membership would soar. Of course, me preaching on the evils of alcohol just isnt right . Does the fact that i embrace the sheer stupidity of it, knowing full well what im doing, make it worse? is ignorance bliss or do i have the minerals to do something about it?

well there you have it, thats me being remarkably open. Im going to stop drinking for a fortnight provisionally just to see if it can be done. its my sisters birthday party tonight so ill see how that goes, knowing me it will last until around 8 o clock tonight. hopefully not.

Football is going well, we have a good squad of around 40-50 new players and the sessions are ok. i need to get all of them in pads soon or id say people will leave and all the players have pads in their houses, silly vikings. although we would be nothing if we werent silly.

We are getting a new housemate in oaklawns i think. a quiet first year girl, she hasnt a clue of what she is getting herself into. its funny.

Reply with your name and I'll respond with something random about you.
1. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
2. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
3. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me. (This possibly will not apply to all).
4. I'll tell you my first memory of you.
5. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
6. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written.

Music: Kill, Jimmyeatworld
Mood: well now that this is on, i miss louise.

Award Night

2005-10-09T11:29:00.000+01:00

we had an awards night with work on friday night out in the radisson hotel. free 4 course meal, free champagne, free wine, free buses in and out. NICE! i have photos to put of us all looking pimped in our suits. a great night was had by all especially eoin :)

it was then decieded to go bowling last night with liom, aoife, conal, steve, laura, paul and joan. it was so funny and a really good way to spend an evening

must go, work calls. TALK CHOO BABY!!! YAAAAAAAAAAA

hooo haaa!

2005-10-05T15:33:00.000+01:00

ok, general von paulus is back in the building, normal service can resume.

we had 70 new players at Vikings training on monday, it was kind of scary. i was coaching and and my over was a little whelmed. there was a plethora of tail at cheerleading practice too, which is always good.

i have to take the session again tonight, that should be fun.

music: creed, my sacrifice (unbeliveable song, get it now if you havent heard it)
mood: FOOOTBALL!!!

im a little stress ball short and stout

2005-09-29T17:49:00.000+01:00

ok back in college. its good to see everyone again but the old FYP supervisor is on to me, essay deadlines are already there, lectures have to be attended (granted there are only 6 of them) and im up to my tits in debt. actually im so up to my tits that im up to my dads tits in debt, which is never good. ive so many little problems to sort out its not funny. thats the main reason behind my lack of posting, combined with my lack of internet at home and my lack of using the library. im at that stage where there is too much stuff to blog about so im just going to blog about nothing. the house is going good though, at least one thing is going well. its good to be able to change your clothes after a night in the lodge before going to college.

music: missy higgins, dirt into the snow
mood: stressed

glasgay!

2005-09-21T18:38:00.001+01:00

oh man what a weekend. nestor kindly dropped us to the airport where we found out our flight was delayed. we promptly went to the pub. 15 hours drinking followed in which too many random adventures took place to post about. anyways we ended up getting kicked out of the hotel at 3 in the morning and slept rough in an alley. we went back to the hotel at 9 in the morning and told them we had learnt our lesson and got back in which was pretty sweet, they mustnt have found out about the fire extinguisher laurence sprayed all over our room. so we got a bit of kip, recharged the batteries and went out and saw the town, which is a very nice place by the by. then we went back to the room and promptly passed out. we eventually roused enough energy to get dressed and head out. we expected a quiet enough night. what we didnt expect was to be singing sean south in the middle of glasgow with a load of rangers supporters. im not doing the weekend justice but its tough. then we got back on sunday fully intending to get about 20 hours sleep but nestor had different ideas. we had a girly night in, except it wasnt girly or in. eoin went to the lodge wearing louises nightdress and a pair of fairy wings. funniest looks EVER!!

music: ticket to ride (pretty apt dont you think)
mood: PARTY PARTY PARTY ZWEI TAUSAND UND FUNF!!

its ok, im still alive.

2005-09-15T13:31:00.001+01:00

sorry bout the distinct lack of posts but we havent got the internet in the house which kinda sucks. the house is going well, mary from work moved in. we had mexican for dinner last night, it was all very domesticated. for everyone i texted last night, my apologies. i was FLAMING!! i got up to the lodge from the stables by jumping into a random punters boot and getting thrown around on the way. great fun. i have to get all my stuff sorted for glasgow tomorrow, should be class. GOOOD GOOOOOD!

Deja Vu

2005-09-09T16:12:00.000+01:00

its happening again. another friday another boozing session, ah im not complaining. not a very coherent plan, i suggested building a tree house and a cream cracker eating competition but they were shot down. in further news, since i have last been talking to you all i have moved into college. living in 29 oaklawns with eoin, should be fun and frolics. not much happening really, same old shenanigans, though i am heading surfing with louy tomorrow. cant wait to hit the water, weather will be wild. i cant borrow kev kevs board so im not sure ill be surfing, maybe my ironing board. ah well.

i do hope eoin sucks my cock!

LIFE IS GREAT!!!

2005-09-01T15:12:00.000+01:00

i have a video of louise screaming that while skipping down a road in crecora. well she is back, black and as nuts as ever. somehow she got her job in ISI back for the few weeks she is at home so that will be fun.

last night we had a lovely family dinner in copper and spice. indian food is honestly the best in the world, with mexican a close second then italian. then me and sarah watched the life aquatic which was crazy. it was from the director of the royal tenenbaums so you can imagine how strange it was. it was slightly different to Ong Bak anyways. i still cant get over how savage that was. steve i cant send it to your g-mail account, its only in DVD form so if i can get it to work ill give you a copy of it.

Ong Bat

2005-08-30T12:58:00.000+01:00

as stevie has already said, his leg was on fire and he kicked him in the face. we watched the best martial arts film ever on sunday night, ong bat, i think its name was. im not even going to describe it coz it wouldnt do it justice, just go watch it. we were jumping around like little girls for the entire duration, steve got especially excited with the flaming kicks. there was even a round of applause at the end. i copied it onto my laptop too so ill be watching that bad boy again.

yesterday joan called out and we were asked to help herd cattle. it was a very rural occasion and im glad joan got to witness it. she looked a little out of place in her oasis outfit. i on the other hand was a dynamo of cow herding energy. i got to have a stick and say things like HUH!! HUUH!! HUUUP!! it was class.

today we got a postcard from paul in work. it was pretty crap to be honest. eoin the lunatic and louise are back on the scene though so that made up for the disappointment. well we havent seen louise yet, we believe she is hiding in one of eoins pockets.

ok i fixed my commenting thingy

2005-08-28T14:07:00.000+01:00

stupid monkeys in my computer put on the wrong settings. ah at least i didnt get the smelly comments from the spam can. feel free to light up my life with your witticisms.

Titties Titties Titties Titties Titties Titties

2005-08-28T02:04:00.001+01:00

ahhh what a song. just got off the phone there from two drunken people singing that at me. i got made to promise to go there in two weeks time, messy shenanigans shall ensue. i just got back from elaine g's 21st, seemed like it was developing into a fun night. i was driving, tired and had to pick my sister up from town so i wasnt in the biggest PARTY PARTY mood. went into the boat club afterwards and saw lots of little young rockers keeping the kiddies scene alive. they were remarkably well behaved but made me feel really old. they were all full of energy and being all underage and stuff. actually as i was in there i was wondering, what sort of person would people group me as. you know you have your goth/metal people, your jocks, your nerds, your scumbags and i got to wondering about what makes different people act in such different ways. meh dont mind me its just the stupid late night ramblings of a dumbass with not enough sleep.

this week was fun. i went to see the play on in the belltable, a modern take on romeo and juliet that was a commentary on the feuding families in limerick. it was really well done, very topical, good acting from the limerick youth theater group and there was big crowds every night. they got coverage on national news because the subject material was so controvertial. good ploy to get bums on seats. me james and laurence went on a rampage afterwards. cant mention too many details but the lodge never saw it coming. hahahahaha. we are heading to glasgow the weekend before college starts back too for some fun and frolics.

me and da got stuck into the boat today and got a good bit done. he bought a hollow hull of a cruiser a year ago and is doing it up. should be ready to hit the water next summer. its looking class at the moment, cant wait to take it out for a spin.

ok now i must go pick this drunken hoor of a sister of mine from town.

music: In Loving Memory Of, Alterbridge
mood: wrecked tired, cranky and pissed off

ill let you all in on a little secret

2005-08-23T21:55:00.000+01:00

ive always wanted to be a photographer. today i watched a tiny spider duke it out with a big queen bumble bee in my conservatory and i wished i had the expertise and tools to take quality pictures of the two of them. the spider eventually won, wrapping the the bumblebee in a web but it was interesting to watch. maybe ill take dads good camera out someday and see what i can do.

i also changed my comments back so that anyone can post because i realised i would miss out on darling steve and pas unerringly witty comments.

today i actually did stuff on my FYP, read through a couple of sources. not very productive but better than nothing really.

music: red chord, the frames
mood: im actually missing america a lot at the moment

stickfighting

2005-08-22T21:16:00.000+01:00

i forgot to post about stuff. first thing was the hurling match yesterday, go on galway you legends. that was one of the best games i have ever seen. both teams have good defences and both gave their all and there was still 9 goals scored. both keepers did well, all the goals were well taken, granted galway made a couple of mistakes that gave kilkenny two goals. if ever people believed that football was better than hurling, watch that match, and the clare cork game and then compare them with the upcoming football semis. there is no comparison.

as for the rest of the weekend, friday night saw the growing festival of vagina rising (its a work joke). see robs blog for more details if you like. we were FLAMING!! and yes rob i am a bad bad man.

saturday was a complete write off, we watched band of brothers, laughed at rob getting sick and then headed out to young munsters for a 21st. there was the cheesiest music ever, it was class. headed into the buzzing metropolis of limerick and hit up smyths for a while. i was wrecked though so i left conal and joan to their own devices. one of the girls was modelling for anne summers earlier in the night so we laughed at her for a while.

yesterday we watched UFC and wrastled for a bit. went to see the granny and laughed at cheesy bond films with her.

is.....aaa...is your wife......is she a goer? know what i mean squire? nudge nudge....nods as good as a wink to a blind bat.

A twist of lemming sir?

2005-08-22T20:45:00.000+01:00

herrow.

ive got a problem. im addicted to football manager 2005. ive been playing it non stop. i even played it in work during my breaks today. i didnt even quit out of it to go online i just paused it. thats how high i regard you all. im listening to monty python live at drury lane at the same time. its class, absolutely classic monty python, all their best old gags put together on one cd. i think ill read the biography of monty python tonight while im at it. i bet americans dont get their humour at all, its very british.

i have an offer for those in ireland at the moment. dunno if i have asked anyone yet. would anyone like to go learn how to scuba dive with me for a weekend soon? im not sure where it is but ill drive, should be fun. and if there is any more corporate adds commenting on this post i will personally send every credit card ad i get in the post to your homes. beat that you filthy money grubbing sluts.

music: monty python, every sperm is sacred.
mood: pro-socialism

AAAARRRRR, avast astern!

2005-08-21T15:00:00.000+01:00

My pirate name is:

Bloody Sam Flint

Every pirate lives for something different. For some, it's the open sea. For others (the masochists), it's the food. For you, it's definitely the fighting. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Quotes of the day

2005-08-18T23:53:00.000+01:00

"The Internet is just CB radio for the '00's."
"Today is a gift, thats why they call it the present"

music: the lumberjack song, monty python
mood: playful

My Life

2005-08-17T21:45:00.000+01:00

ok that weekend was wild. mothers party was a complete success, she didnt know what hit her. it was cool, she went white in the face and just kept saying OH MY GOD! for about half an hour. a well worked plan by james(a.k.a. my dad) sarah and myself if i must say so. the party was fun, all the mothers got drunk and we laughed at them. then james bust out the guitar and we had a singsong for a bit. when pegs found out that she sang the day after she was mortified, i recall it was something by anastasia, class. then the old dears went off to bed and i brought out a couple of blankets to lie on and under in the garden and me, ben, rob, laura and steve settled down to watch the stars. then suddenly a bottle of sambuca appeared as if from no where. after this point everything becomes kind of fuzzy, i remember wrestling rob and ben and playing golf off my roof at 4 in the morning. good times.

i went up to croke park for the first time this year to see the all ireland hurling semi final. clare were playing cork, we werent expected to win. we led the whole way through the match only to lose it towards the end and lost by a point. sickened. i think the core of the clare team are close to retirement so next year we dont really have a chance of reaching this stage of the tournament. sad really coz hurling matches are such great occasions.

ive got back doing respectable amounts of work, although i did take today off to give dad a hand with the boat and stuff. ive been doin my weights program too, heading to the gym with rob tomorrow. now all i have to do is start getting some progress on my FYP and ill be a good little boy. looking forward to jens birthday on friday, should be lots of laughs.

Music: All my life, Foo Fighters
Mood: Pro-active

huzzah for shiny new laptops!!

2005-08-09T18:33:00.000+01:00

just posting from the new laptop. its class. im looking for suggestions for a name for it. ive been piling music and pictures onto it all day.

on other less important notes, MY BIG BAD SIS is back from kiwiland. dont say anything to pegs about it coz we have this big suprise for her birthday planned when sarah just appears at the door and freaks out mom who thinks she is in singapore.

and remember kids, support eddies, kill a ghost.

music: Alphabet Soup, Bell X1
mood: very fooking happy!

mmmMAAD!

2005-08-08T10:59:00.001+01:00

ok ok i know its the name of a shop but it also describes my weekend pretty well. the pub crawl was a complete success (i think, im waiting for people to come into work to confirm this rumour). saturday night we went to mollys for lauras birthdate, it was a good laugh. then me and a rather inebriated honan went out to collect my parents from a wedding, we ended up boozing out there with them then going back to conals to hang out with random clonlara girls who i had rarely talked to before. we were a bit more classy last night, going to dinner for lauras b'day in milanos, very nice food, company was a bit shite though.

ive decieded that ive been having quite enough fun and its time to start doing stuff that needs to be done like a lot of hours work and bits of my FYP and getting fit and things like that. not sure if it will work though.

p.s. mad props to rob and hughes who are back in ze mother country.

music: Jack Johnson, In Between Dreams
mood: dog tired

Pub Crawl Mark II

2005-08-05T11:20:00.000+01:00

another one is being planned for tonight. there are 20 of us starting off, hopefully more than three of us will make it to the last pub. pa and conal might be headin out too, although the pair of them are acting like a pair of tranny grannys.

i saw charlie and the chocolate factory last night. tim burton is such a legend. it was a great kids film but it was all dark and weird too. jonny depp was a cross between marilyn manson and micheal jackson, soo funny. and there was a fat german kid which is always good for cheap laughs.

2005-08-05T00:07:00.000+01:00

IM BATMAN!!

2005-08-05T00:03:00.000+01:00

im not even sure what is going on here

meh

2005-08-03T22:57:00.001+01:00

im feeling awful apathetic at the moment, im amazed i am even blogging. i played the football match at the weekend, it sucked. i sprained my foot on monday, its still bloody sore.

2005-08-01T02:01:00.000+01:00

dramatic posing

2005-07-30T20:32:00.000+01:00

born to be wild

Oh yes its Ladys Day and I feel all......gay?

2005-07-30T20:31:00.001+01:00

what be poppin homies? sorry bout the lack of postage recently but ive just been SOOO TIRED TODD (and farty and bloated after a thick creamy latte in the morning). the reason ive been so tired is probably due to thursday. me james and lawrence were sitting in work, bored out of our respective minds when i suggested jokingly that id love to be in galway tonight coz it was ladies day at the races. and yes, you guessed it. by 5 that evening there we were, dressed all shiny, in the owners enclosure of the galway races, having not paid in. we had half an eye on the race and one and a half on the talent which was UNREAL!! i retract all statements about irish birds being ugly, maybe its just the ones i know ;)

we ended up heading out on the town afterwards, the club we went to was great, C.P's i think it was called. lawrence met his friend Diamond Dave (best name ever) and then got into the racing mood by scoring this creature that looked suspiciously like a horse. he left me and james to our own devices anyways so much spassing out on the dancefloor was the order of the day. then we dropped the girls back and got to bounce on trampopolines for a bit. the drive home was fuckin hilarious, i had loaded up on caffeine in a big way so i wouldnt fall asleep and james was hyper too. ill put up some pictures with apples and bunratty castle and duvets. lots of fun was had. got in the door at 6 fully expecting to pass out asleep. i think i overdid the caffeine coz i didnt sleep till about 1 last night after watchin A Knights Tale, such a quality film. the football is going ahead tomorrow and it should be fun. there is lots of politics and shit going on but i think ill keep my head out of it. later dudes and dudettes.

2005-07-30T20:29:00.000+01:00

Me James and Lawrence at the Races

Sunday Night Lights

2005-07-26T11:02:00.000+01:00

we have a football match this weekend against cork. its basically a playoff game coz whoever wins this will go to the playoffs. i hope all the boys will be able to get off work and stuff coz we have a long running feud with the Admirals. We beat them for the first time in ages this year and hopefully we can do it again. We wont have our american players though but i think we could do pretty well if we have a full squad. should be fun anyways and i cant wait to tackle someone.

Music: Explosions in the Sky, Your hand in mine.
Mood: i wanna hit someone

monday morning blues

2005-07-25T10:13:00.000+01:00

here are 5 suggestions to get over the monday morning blues

1. do what i have been doing for the last month and just dont go to work, do something else.
2. go to the gym in the morning and do a hard workout. the rest of the day will be a piece of cake
3. listen to big mad angry german music (listening to Rammstein at the moment, seems to have done the trick.
4. sleep all weekend in preparation of monday
5. dont stop drinking from the weekend, see if you can outrun the hangover.

Music: Rammstein, Du Hast.
Mood: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH

Red Bull Air Race

2005-07-24T23:28:00.001+01:00

The event itself was the biggest let down ever but as horan says, its all about the journey not the destination. ok ill start at the beginning. horan was back for the weekend coz his bro marcus was getting married and he was all being a groomsman and stuff. so we went out last night to commemorate the occasion (not before me conal and mom had the best lunch ever in the Green Onion, id highly recommend it to anyone dining in limerick.) we hit costellos late after a couple in the horrifically tourist dolans. it was the most Oirish pub ive ever had the pleasure of drinking in. ive drank there before but last night it seemed to be in serious tourist mode. anyway the night in costellos was agreeable and then we we up bright and early this morning to head to the air race. steve and laura pulled out so joanie tagged along with myself liom and horan. we were stuck in traffic for ages but we were listening to ricky gervais' radio show. its hilarious, brilliant stuff. it sounds like a pirate station with no plan and everyone just taking the piss out of each other. they rip the piss out of their producer in a big way its class. we arrived anyways and somehow blagged our way into the VIP section which had nice toilets, with bog roll, warm water, carpets. it also had free chinese beer and red bull so obviously we horsed into them, creating a new beverage in the process. Red Tiger. its beer and red bull, i highly recommend it. then the planes flew around for ten minutes. they were impressive but a little overly built up. then it was plenty of sugar and beer fueled antics on the way back. we decieded to head to the cinema covered in crap from the fields of cashel and saw kicking and screaming. its pap, some of it is funny pap but wait till it goes to DVD to watch it if your heart is set on it.

moment of the day has to go to us getting out of the gate of the car park/field. it was pure muddy and horan was spinning the wheels. there was mud flying from the back, smoke or steam coming from the engine, a car was trying to cut in front of us and i was screaming SLUT SLUT SLUT at them, we were listening to 'the power of love' and liom was giggling uncontrollably.

Music: Snow Patrol, Spitting Games
Mood: half cut and smelly

damn the man

2005-07-21T16:35:00.000+01:00

ok it looks like it would be silly to go to london tomorrow, three more bombs went off there today so i think me and james are pulling out. maybe another time or another place. its a bit of a bummer though, i was lookin forward to that.

i played soccer last night out in LIT with billy whizz. it was a good standard actually and a good run about which i badly needed. might have another game on tonight with the boys from work.

me and robbie have been freakin our boss out with strange jokes today, this one was a favourite of mine: how do you make your penis look bigger? put it in a babys hand. nasty i know.

music: stereophonics new song, on the radio.
mood: dirty minded

apologies

2005-07-19T13:36:00.000+01:00

ok, im sorry for the distinct lack of posting but ive been away to castlegregory and since ive been home dial up has been wrecking my head. work is gettin on my back about not doing enough hours, well they are going to have to wait for a while coz im heading to london for the weekend with jamsie boy. should be fun. if the internet works when i get home ill put up a big post

music: sounds like a comeback song from R. Kelly on the radio on work, its crap.
mood: industrious

beaches, boards, barbeques, bjeaurs and blogs

2005-07-12T23:53:00.001+01:00

this weekend, well thursday to tuesday has been sooooo class. ive been spending most of my time on an assortment of beaches. been surfing, sitting and basically taking advantage of the heatwave going on here at the moment. it was like 30 degrees here today and its been sweet all weekend. im way too tired to post anything significant other than i have to go to smelly work tomorrow which sucks but im plannin on going down to kerry for the weekend and ill drag honan and elaine and ciara with me.

p.s. big ups to my man paulus :)

hairy japanese bastards

2005-07-09T19:41:00.000+01:00

summer has arrived, excellent. although the fact that it arrives at the precise time that im not at oxegen and everyone else is pisses me off. ahh well, im off surfing tomorrow again so its all good. its Mr. (the . is very important) Snuggles 21st tonight and we are heading into that, should be a laugh. ive been awful lazy all week, i must start working harder and start increasing the weights im doing. ill leave it till monday. until then, a cool miller, good music and surf in the morning.

music: KT Tunstall, Other side of the world
mood: wishing i was in oxegen

point break

2005-07-08T00:52:00.001+01:00

today was really cool. left the house at 8, dropped james(dad not kildare with whom im going to london soon which will be class, blog on the terror attacks will follow presently) to work then hit the water at around 11. i was surprised, i can actually surf now. caught some good waves and got down along them which was cool. the waves were pretty big and the break was out a good bit so it was tough enough getting back out past the break point but it was worth it coz the waves were sweet. we were going to go horseriding afterwards but we figured we didnt want to be led coz that would be lame and wer werent good enough not to be led. that and horses freak me out since i had a bad experience with one in shane ryans house years ago. we went for a stroll on the beach instead.

so then we had dinner and then went to the cinema and saw mr. and mrs. smith. it was ok, huge plot holes and stuff but i can definitely see why people think they are together, they definately have HUGE amounts of chemistry, its really obvious.

other stuff happened but im too lazy to post it. but yes today was cool, and yes we are meetin again. this sunday to be precise coz my oxegen ticket isnt goin to work which is a bit of a bummer but at least now more surfing and strolling is on the agenda.

junior B hurling, you cant bate it with a stick.

2005-07-06T00:31:00.001+01:00

clonlara won the junior B league today, which was fun. nothin like a bit of the old stick fighting. its also conals 21st birthday and we had a leetle party, which was nice. then it was off to stritches for pints. actually thinkin back, i started today at 3 in the day, ,me and damien left work and went to the hurlers for one. sweet. GOOOD GOIN (in me best doooblin accent)!!!! we met anne marie and her friends, including this really really drunk aussie girl. it was fun. ive been thinking about interesting things to blog about, and then i thought, isnt it interesting that while im experiencing life, im thinking about whether this will make good blog material. also steve made an interesting point that blogs are too self involved, i undertake to post reasonably frequently about non liam things. hows that fucker??? now start your own one so we can see inside the deep dark depths of your squalid little brain.

music: Frankie goes to hollywood, Relax
mood: tipsy mc staggers.

shhhhhh im hunting wabbits

2005-07-03T22:51:00.000+01:00

mad props to ben who got me a sweet t-shirt that carries that caption. and nice reciever gloves and a humpers hat. himself and darach were in chicago for 10 days on a basketball training camp with their school coz they won the all-ireland basketball championships. they seemed to have a good laugh. i got roped into doin the first day of the honan summer camp, well i volunteered really. one of the leaders is away and i can take a day off work so im in there bright and early in the mornin.

on the whole text situation i think its a minor success. she even agreed to meet me again, silly girl doesnt know what she is getting herself into. we are off to the maherees for a spot of surfin. excellent.

i got my results, got on ok, 2 B2s and a B3. not better than i expected, not worse so its all good. ok i must get to bed to rest up for the smelly group of 30 fifth class boys that awaits me. peace out

music: Micheal Jackson, Beat It
mood: hyper

first text jitters

2005-07-03T01:50:00.000+01:00

last night was elaines 21st aka vaginafest 2005. the lads in work had such a laugh about that one, we came up with an entire promotions campaign and drew up a provisional lineup. all i remember was that pink, super furry animals and the flaming lips were mentioned prominently.

ANYWAY!! last night was good misspelt crack. me conal and pa cruised out listening to X-ibit and very heavy metal. then we sat outside in the car scared to go in coz a guy in a pink t-shirt was intimidating us. when we eventually raised the courage to go in it was a good laugh. there was a really mixed crowd there but everyone seemed to want to talk to everyone. i find that usually with 21sts that gangs kinda hang around with each other. last night was kinda like that at the start but by the end of it everyone seemed to be happy out just chatting away to everyone. well i wasnt feeling that sociable but thats coz i was canoodling on a trampoline, which, oddly has always been an ambition of mine. anyways, thats where the first text jitters come in, ive recently realised that girls pay a huge amount of attention to texts from guys (thanks joan). i got a reply anyway so it cant have been too bad.

the way home this mornin was funny actually, me and conal took a detour to shannon airport to play shitty arcade games at 6 in the morning and then we threw money at road signs. then i picked up pa and we watched the lions match. it was the best first two minutes ever but it all went downhill from there. daniel carter is an absolutely amazing player, he does it all. tonight i watched man about dog, its like snatch except irish and about greyhounds, i like, i like.

music: the streets, blinding lights
mood: hopeful of more replies

ready about, LEE HO!!

2005-06-30T19:11:00.001+01:00

sailing with dad was lots of fun, if a little calm. there was occasional gusts of wind and i got to hang out on the trapeeze which is such a laugh. you are out on a wire with your two feet on the boat trying to lean out as much as possible to counter the wind from tipping the boat over. such a cool feeling, skimming over the waves.

i got a free PC from work on tuesday, its pretty sweet, 22 inch monitor, pentium 3 and best of all, FREE!! ive been continuing my progress through the sopranos, its class. tomorrow is elaines 21st and she is havin a poorty in her place so ill be there with bells on. tis a pity coz all the work people are headin out tomorrow night, one of the lads is playin a gig in dolans but such is life.

i have a question for all my frequent(and not so frequent) commenters, do you think its possible for two people who went out previously to have a purely platonic relationship?

Drop it like its.....

2005-06-27T17:27:00.001+01:00

last night was cool, and old school. it was like the summer of sixth year all over again (minus paul, your presence was missed bro). kev has left for canada today so we had a little soiree for to commemorate his departure. we watched the big lebowski, its a classic. then the proles departed and left the rest to go on an adventure and ended up going for a big long walk down by the shannon and telling ghost stories in an abandoned castle at three o clock in the morning and really freaking ourselves out. it was lots of fun though even if the girls nearly shit themselves. i didnt get home till around 4 in the morning so work was out of the question.

today was one of those summer days you get in ireland that are just perfect. so i sat outside with my book (which is very good incidentally, Man and Boy by Tony Parsons) and a few pints of smoothies and chilled out. which is nice. man and boy makes me want to talk to my dad more, we are going sailing tomorrow so mayhap some male bonding will occur.

me and james are planning on going to london for a weekend soon, which should be fun.

music: The Frames, Fitzcarraldo
mood: i feel like going back to the SUN!!!

Tony, Tony Soprano

2005-06-24T23:17:00.000+01:00

i just watched the first episode of the Sopranos on DVD. conal has up to season four on DVD, and i am looking forward to every minute of it. its a great show, i never knew. i might get another episode in tonight. im watching the lions game in kevs in the mornin, LETS KICK SOME KIWI ASS, come on BOD and co.

music: Faithless, Insomnia
mood: eager

slow down my beating heart

2005-06-24T20:36:00.000+01:00

U2 play croke park in dublin for three nights this weekend. 240,000 lucky people get to see one of the great bands strut their stuff. sadly i wont be among that number. i had a small chance of getting a ticket and i really regret it now. i watched the DVD of when they played Slane a few years ago and it was amazing. the hair on the back of my neck rose a few times. i know there are a lot of people that dont like them for whatever reason (bonos prancing being one) but they are the best band ireland is ever likely to produce. that was the day that ireland beat holland to qualify for the world cup and everyone was so proud to be irish and bonos dad was still fresh in the memory and bono seemed to appreciate the presence of the crowd. ive decieded i want 'Kite' played at my funeral, add it to JimmyEatWorld 'Hear You Me'.

the show was amazing, visually as well as musically. and U2 also poked their noses in where they werent wanted. they called for more progress in the Northern Ireland peace process, they pointed out that the 5 permanent members of the Security Council were also the biggest arms manufacturers. Sudan didnt make all those guns they are using. im not the biggest fan of Bono but the guy has got balls and his heart is in the right place.

enjoy yourself james, you lucky feicer.

music: In a Little While
mood: wishful

the Garda Bill

2005-06-23T17:42:00.000+01:00

in case you were on another planet, there is a bill being discussed in the Dail today that is designed to reform the Gardai. the minister for justice just doubled the length of the bill with amendments today, after the committee stage just before the bill is voted on. i am of the opinion that reform is needed of the gardai. there is more accountability needed but there is no gardai ombudsman put forward, there is a committee instead. there was also a very suspicious amendment put in today, the minister for justice can examine any files on politicians that the gardai have on record. i think that this bill could have reformed the gardai in a way that was much needed but instead there is not a lot of progress being made and McDowell has gone about it in a very silly way.

music: the last word (in case you couldnt tell)
mood: tired (ive been in work since 8 and its now 6)

girls are squirrels

2005-06-23T15:51:00.000+01:00

its true, they are. its science.

music: Damien Rice, Cannonball
mood: confused

my dad is a bad influence on me

2005-06-22T22:04:00.000+01:00

today i was working away like a busy little beaver trying to get a bit of money together when my dad rings me at lunchtime and tells me he is going home. i wouldnt have a lift home if i didnt go with him so i had to leave. not that i was complaining, the weather is too good to pass up at the moment. when the weather is nice in ireland there isnt a nicer country in my opinion. then there was much procrastination when we got home and now im having a nice cold beer, blogging and going to bed in a bit. ooh thats a lot of B's. add that to the music im listening to and its a hell of a lot.

music: Bell X1 Eve the Apple of my Eye
mood: chilled (like my beer)