Author: davebushe

This has been sitting in draft for a day and I’m not sure I can or want to revist it so “Publish Post” it is.

Change.

It’s a recurring theme these days, it seems to crop up in particular when I’m talking to people from back in the day in Dublin. Perhaps it’s natural, it’s maybe a good point of view on how things are now and how things were then. It’s all through tainted glasses I think. Everything that I can look back on then can’t be seen without the past few years adding onto that view too. It’s strange.

It’s sometimes annoying too. Nothing to do with the conversation that lead to this but in another case, it can’t always be about looking back and it perhaps has been too much. Sometimes we need to look at the here and the now and the going forward. The past, the past that we tend to talk about is in many cases so irrelevant to the present, to who we are now, to what we do now and to what we can do now. Sure some of it shaped us either in a good way or as an obstacle to overcome and perhaps where we stand now is an indictment of where we stood then.

At the same time, it’s a common experience and a common thread that can bind us together and give us something to always fall back on during those moments before the late night where the cards go down onto the table. It’s a safety net, and a stepladder at the same time. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but surely it would be better to strive beyond the both of these?

I feel this will be an issue within the next week and as the last time I’m going to try and not let it be but the best intentions and all that.

So there is a new pope, and he’s anti-everything except perhaps Nazis. Hurrah, well done that Catholic church. Ok so the Nazi thing is just a sensational reaction to what does sound to have been a minor and very compulsory role but nevertheless having someone elected to the highest position in such an organisation who lists Hitler Youth on their CV….man oh man. The only thing I see coming from this is a push to the more liberal catholics to move out. It’s a bit like the US elections where the core right wing conservatives dominate at the expense of the rest of the country and indeed world.

Last night I went to see the Manic Street Preachers in Hammersmith Apollo. I picked up tickets for cheap on ebay and figured it should be a good night. And it was, it was an excellent gig. A really good set with something from everything over the years. A loud loud opening with Found That Soul and
A Design For Life. The sound was excellent, one of the best I’ve heard. I was somewhat worried as the sound for the support was piss poor but it was all fine. Speaking of the support, The Delays were allright. I saw them sometime last year at a work party and they weren’t very good. I really like one of their songs; Long Time Coming and they did that so it was all good.

Last week, I saw British Sea Power out at the Forum and they were excellent. Really really excellent. An absolute little gem of a band. The new album; Open Season is good solid fun. A little more poppy and certainly more assessable than the debut album, it should do them well. More than worth seeing at a festival near you this year. Nice to be able to walk home from a gig too. Missed the support on that one. Due to a rather shit day in the office, lots of people were in the pub and so I joined them for a little while.

Lots coming up at the end of the week. Friday night is a work party and from the sounds of it quite a decent one. It’s to celebrate those of us who have worked here for more than 5 years. We are being taken out for a dinner and drinks evening and in a nice turn around instead of getting a tacky gift of some sort, we got a catalogue and an allowance and were allowed to pick what we wanted. A decent enough choice too but of course nothing major jumped out at me. So very domestic, I picked a microwave and a semi-decent coffee maker for the kitchen. So not too exciting but things that I would have someday bought anyway. The party is smart dress but there is quite a buzz around it and a whole lot of people making an effort so I *have* to remember to drop my suit off for dry-cleaning tomorrow. It should be fun. It’s also an all-nighter with a nice hotel and late night bar thrown in. I fear for the state of me when I make it to Doug’s birthday drinks on Saturday. It could be an interesting evening…

I’m looking forward to next week a whole lot. On Wednesday evening I’m off to Dublin for a long weekend. I have to see some family of course and the Thursday is my mothers graduation so I’m off to that. Then as it’s a bank holiday weekend, I suspect there will be a lot of out and abouting. Nothing actually planned out yet, I’m looking forward to taking it easy for a few.

This past weekend didn’t start off so easy. Friday night down the pub turned into a little bit of a nightmare with arguments going all night. There was already a lot of tension in place and some effort was made to calm this fairly successfully. Then a draw of sambuca arrived and it was like petrol thrown onto a fire. There was even storming out of the pub by around 10pm. Not so fun.

Saturday morning was hungover of course. The afternoon was then spent out at Kew Gardens wandering around and taking some photos. A good afternoon with some of the photos even coming out quite well.

Sunday, well on Sunday I got sunburnt. I was reading out on Primrose Hill for about 90 minutes and both my arms are burnt. Not badly, but enough that they itch.

Work is varying between quiet and hectic depending on the time of day it seems. I was working late and coming in early last week to get stuff done and now I’m sitting around without much to do. I really wish there was some sort of balance to it.

I’m doing some product management work at the moment. It’s a big change from what I usually do and it’s pretty interesting. It’s dealing with more process and more people than I’m familiar with and it’s opening up a lot of things there. It’s also come with a huge amount of pressure. So far it’s all going fine, in fact it’s even going well, I’m just waiting for someone to realise that I’m tottering on the edge and push me over. Now that I have to actually get some costs and time frames around things that I either don’t have a clue or at best have a poor estimate, it gets really interesting. I seem to have become the de facto lead on the whole thing which is bringing in both good and bad things.

In the early 90’s there was a woman murdered fairly close to where I lived in Dublin. By fairly close, I walked past the house twice a day to get to and from school. There was a big thing at the time of course. Murders were a whole lot rarer in Dublin back then, especially out that far on the Northside. As I recall from the time, it was her husband who was generally thought to have done it. However he was released and no-one was ever charged. I’ve been reading Bandit Country: The IRA and South Armagh and I was astounded to discover this murder is mentioned in it and says that her husband was conclusively cleared by the cops and the he claims it was the IRA and names some very high up members (claimed members of course). I emailed my parents to ask them if they had heard anything along those lines and apparently there was a whole lot more talked about at the time but not reported anywhere. Interesting.

Kew Gardens this afternoon. Arrived at the Lily pond just in time to catch a good 5 minute display by this peacock. Spectacular to see him in action and the sound the feathers make and the movements when shaken were amazing. A fun day. Lots more photos in the Flickr set for it.

So I went out tonight with the intent to put out some fires on bridges.

I think it may have ended with an inferno 🙁

www.63336.com

AQA stands for Any Questions Answered. In short, you text in any question and can receive an within a few minutes.

So I sent them the question:

What are we without our hopes and dreams?

They responded:

Without hopes and dreams there is no point even getting out of bed in the morning. Being content with your lot can equal happiness but dreams help.

Not a bad answer there actually.

What are we without hopes and dreams?

Another quiet weekend. Pizza and a movie in, sometimes the best way to spend a Saturday night. Today is quite nice outside so I have been lounging around the park with Hebe for a while.

I’ve fallen off the reading bandwagon again and I know why. I’m reading and enjoy it must be said Bandit Country: The IRA and South Armagh but I know why it’s not keeping me. I need to be reading about someone. I need to make some sort of a connection and *that* is what I’m looking for in a book right now. I have several books on Ireland I want to read but none cover someone quite like what I’m looking for. I’d head into town and look for some more but the selection here is piss poor for Irish history. I bet this will have passed by the time I make it to Dublin in a few weeks.

Two big tours coming up that I have to get tickets for. The first being Bruce Springsteen playing two nights (pre big tour) at the Royal Albert Hall. I suspect tickets are going to be expensive and hard to get but I shall be trying my best. Could be an excellent excellent gig. Really looking forward to the new album in a couple of weeks time. No joy on the net search for it so far.

Next up, Sigur Ros are touring again! This is some of the best news I’ve had in a while. No London details yet but hopefully a couple of nights somewhere and I’ll go to every night. The year is starting to fall into shape. This week I’m off to see British Sea Power on Wednesday night and that should be a good gig. Looking forward to it quite a bit.

I’m listening to some Rammstein right now, just to fit in somewhere with those bands. The duet with Tatu is actually pure genius. It’s a top top song. There are lots of rumours about them playing a gig at Download and that would be fucking awesome.

I saw Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo yesterday. It’s talked up a lot on the V and by some of the lads in work. I’d avoided it for a while as it just doesn’t sound like my sorta movie at all. And I was right. I laughed 3 or 4 times maybe, it just wasn’t funny. I was however impressed with it’s message. Not the sort of movie you expect one from in the first place and certainly not one delivered as well or as touchingly as that one was. Slightly redeeming allright but I just don’t see the appeal overall.

Continuing the weeks trend towards lists…

– Business are out to make money, thats’s pretty standard. However that does not mean that just because something will not loose money is not a good enough reason to follow it.
– Sometimes it’s nice to have others agree with your opinion or belief. The nice thing about opinions or beliefs however, is that they stand on their own and while it can be nice, it is by no means necessary.
– The new Doctor Who is a whole whole lot of fun and is making me actually want to go and look at the old stuff.
– The sixth season of West Wing picks up at least as much as to be watchable. It’s fucking dire compared to the first three
– The Office, the American version works quite well and I’m enjoying it.
– Main to 36 and main alt to 25 this weekend with lots of fun too.
– The full Glastonbury line-up is out and it’s not that bad actually. No main headliners but lots of decent bands below ’em. Nothing compared to U2 in Dublin of course 🙂
– I love Firefox and I love Greasemonkey and I also love love love Ad Block.

That reminds me, I wanted to talk about Corporate Responsibility. Not the in the usual way of companies doing good supporing charities or sponsership and things like that but in a society as a whole way. I’m really not sure I can get my thoughts into order on this so I’m just going to note it and I’ll revisit it tomorrow I hope. There is certainly nothing wrong with a company striving to make the world a better place. Even if that’s just making a lot of people’s loves a whole lot easier it’s something. This is kinda related to an arugement I was having with Shug on Friday night. I got me thinking about companies being out to make money. I’m not convinced that every company is, I think that some companies believe that if they make the product people will come to it and money might flow from that but if it doesn’t well it’s made a positive contribution to the world (or in the context, the internet).

For what it’s worth along these lines, I don’t use Greasemonkey or Ad Block to block ads on any Google/Gmail pages.

It’s another quiet weekend, ending a pretty quiet week. Most of it has been home early enough to look after Hebe so quite a bit of catching up on watching stuff.

Nothing really planned. There may have been drinks agreed to late tonight but I’m really not that pushed about going out. Last night was my night out and that was fun. I may just order a pizza and watch a movie, I have stacks of DVD’s to watch and I should get around to that. Mmm pizza

Gradually sorting out my music collection aswell and making sure that the iPod is loaded with the good stuff.

It really really is a quiet weekend.