words XXIV

Of late I’ve not felt like writing very much. I do, invariably at 1 or 2 am when I’m having trouble sleeping and thoughts float all around the place. I always think to myself that I must write them down the next day but then it never happens. Occasionally I drag myself out of bed and go and type for a while, but I really have to be having trouble sleeping for that to happen.

I strongly dislike the new Blogger, it’s taken something which was a fairly powerful tool and neutered it. Sure all of the information and functionality is still there but you have to go and look for it, it’s not the nice intuitive interface it use to be. In the days when AOL is moving away from it’s wall gardened and providing more advanced options, should anyone be stepping backwards?

I was chatting with Ciaran on IM this morning and LJ was a topic. (I don’t know how to link up the user names yet so I doubt that will have worked). I was also talking to my flatmate about it the other night and both mentioned the community aspect of it. It’s certainly a bonus and something perhaps which might make me use this for a while. Anyway a few days testing won’t hurt.

I’m off to see David Mamet’s Oleanna tonight. I’m looking forward to it a whole lot. Theatre is only something I really paid attention to over the past year or so and to be quite honest I haven’t seen much since then. I saw We Will Rock You over the weekend. My dad was in London and Queen are about the only musical overlap we have (tho Dylan should be in there I guess). We got some cheap tickets in Leicester Square on Saturday morning which I was very pleased for. There was no way I was paying over £100 for two tickets so when we got 2 for £50 for the matinee, I was quite happy. It was the first musical I’ve been to, not counting stuff I was dragged to as a kid) and it was really really good. It’s certainly not sold me on them in general, a huge amount of my enjoyment was due to it being Queen and the way they slotted in the songs and changed a few lyrics to fit.

*cross posting from LJ for a bit

It’s been a very long week and I’m off to bed shortly. Fairly early for myself, I want to be asleep by 11 if possible. It’s also been an excellent week.

I’ll go off onto a tangent here for a second, I really don’t like this new blogger. I don’t remember what I last posted about or if I’m about to go and cover something I already did. I use to be able to just look down and see the past few posts, now I cannot. It has also gone and broken my permalinks and the new comments don’t work. This could well be the push that I need to use something else.

So to recap a few things quickly

– Conference in Dublin was excellent. We’ve come out of it with massive steps forward in relationships with other countries. This is a very good thing.
– Dublin in general was excellent. I had a number of good nights out, one of them spoiled by a minor case of food posioning, but still a good night with good company.
– Had a good weekend with my Dad this weekend. We got some tickets to the Queen musical; We Will Rock You. We had wanted to see, but was listed as sold out or way too expensive (£110 for 2 tickets) from a booth in Lecister Square for £50 for 2. It was excellent. I didn’t enjoy the first 10 minutes but when it really got going it was excellent. It’s started off a big theatre going kick too. I’ve got two plays booked for this week including Oleana which I’ve been wanting to see for a while now.
– Ate out alot over the past week, the best probably being Belgos in Chalk Farm last night. Good food, good beer and good service. Done a hell of a lot of walking it seems, nothing major but lots and lots of locally coming and going.
– Booked myself a ticket for the London Fleadh next month too. Dylan is the headliner and while I think he has lost it alot in later years, I still have to go and see him. It’s just a day, in Finsbury Park and comes in nicely after the Chilli Peppers. That makes 2 festivals, 2 all day music events and 2 gigs next month. Damn it’s gonna be a good one.
– Work took a major turn for the better on Friday and I actually have a goal now and something that I hope to motivate myself to nicely. Shall see as the week goes along.
– Alot of catch up watching this weekend too. Angel doesn’t seem to be building up to all that much which is a shame but The Shield is having a great season and 24 has really picked up.
– Bristol is now all sorted, the hotel is booked. Tho I should not have drunken conversations with people about who is doing what. Still, all sorted in the end. Looking forward to it a good bit now.
– Not quite making my 11pm bedtime tonight but close enough I guess.

As the mood strikes me over the new few days I’ll go into more detail.

We Will Rock You was excellent, I have to go and listen to some Queen and now!

I really don’t think I like this new blogger system.

Watched a couple of things tonight so as not to end up in bed way too early, will finish up around 10.30 and get some sleep.

That’s really all for now.

I am now back in London, completly exhausted. I am reading the internet so as to make sure I do not go to bed at 19.00

I will go shortly, maybe watch a couple of shows and then sleep for a long long time.

I am now back in London, completly exhausted. I am reading the internet so as to make sure I do not go to bed at 19.00

I will go shortly, maybe watch a couple of shows and then sleep for a long long time.

So Blogger have just run a big update and one of the things I have been wanting for a while is in there, post count. So this one is number 2263. Isn’t that interestin? Not sure I like the rest of the changes, I certainly don’t like the posting page but I don’t realy have much time to look at them. It will be early next week before I do. Actually having tried to save this without publishing it (unpublished rather than as a draft) I really don’t like this new layout so far. “Geek Chic” hmmm.

Anyway I’m in Dublin and having a good time. I’m typing on my sisters Japanese laptop so for once I have a good excuse for any problems in this posting, it’s a little hard to use.

Backtracking for just a moment and yes, rejoice! I have another silly picture to post from Thorpe Park on Friday. A small selection of the V:

The whole ranger thing is of course tied into the Micah Wright (Google) thing and so we lept onboard. Anyway it was an excellent day leaving people tired and sunburnt of all things. More on that one later in the week as I get to sit down at my own computer and type.

Saturday I was up stupidly early to get to Dublin but got here with no problems and all on schedule. Didn’t really do much for the afternoon and headed into the local with my sister and a few of her friends for a drink. The last time I saw some of them, they were 14/15…so sitting in the pub with them now being 20/21 was an eye opener. Really does tie in the theme of things changing which I associate so much with Dublin these days. Anyway it was a good night with just a couple of drinks and a chat for a while.

Last night was much better, ‘cept for some of the smaller details. I met up with Liz, one of the people I got back in touch with the last time I was over and we went off for some dinner. Note to anyone looking for a good Thai resturant in Dublin, Cafe Mao off Grafton Street is great on paper…but not so great on the stomach. The good wasn’t every good for either of us and we moved onto Synnots, one of my old college haunts. Unfortunatly the food came back to haunt and we called it a night but not after a few hours chatting about life the universe and everything. It was a good night.

Even quieter today, lunch with my mom and sister and then not really much since then. Trying to sort out how I’m going to get to City West for early in the morning.

Dublin never seems to really change. On the surface, it has of course a bit. Not by all that much, but walking down the street or anything like that, it’s the same as ever. I’ll tell you something tho, the no smoking in pubs is really fucking great. Walking into the back bar, the typically full of old men sitting at the bar and smoking and not walking into a thick cloud was great. It really did make a noticeable difference.

Oh yes, newsreaders/writers would you PLEASE stop using the word “alleged” while broadcasting photos like that!!! What the FUCK is ALLEGED about it?

Anyway more later in the week.

Van Helsing is worse than Underworld, avoid like the plague.

I’m off to see Van Helsing tonight with the V at a paid preview. I’m looking forward to it, not sure it’s going to be any good but should be fun. There is a good few of us going and a couple of drinks beforehand of course. Then I’m busy for a while and won’t really get to do much on the net. A social week I guess.
Got my full agenda for next week this morning and it’s not as good as I hoped it would be. In particular the last day looks like a bit of a disaster but I’m hoping to be able to pull some stuff out of it. Lots of people going to be attending which is cool, couple I’ve not seen in since the last time I was in Dulles about two years ago so a catch up beer will be good. Lots and lots of people to meet aswell. Some names I’ve known for years finally available to meet. Should be good.

Also looking forward to the weekend of course, it’s almost there and I’m hoping for a nice quietish one and will probably turn out that way..unless it becomes a really heavy one which I am trying to avoid but will have to see how it all goes.