Thinking in Circles

In 3 phases

2006-01-29T14:07:00.000Z

Phase 1: A few quiet drinks with my brother

Phase 2: The mother of all drinking sessions

Both of my brothers, my cousin and I went drinking. My brother went to a shop while the rest of us were in the pub and bought us each a bottle of Buckfast—horrible, horrible tonic wine—and made me drink mine. My cousin wouldn’t drink his, and I was so drunk that when my brother handed it to me, saying there was only a drop left, I believed him (the bottle was full!)

So, then my other brother and I went to a club, where the drinks cost £1 each, and he was served doubles because he knew the bartender… Tequila all round!

I was so drunk that I had to crawl along holding the railings outside the place where I live just to move forward… and slept on the ground when they ran out.

The next day, I had the mother of all hangovers.

Phase 3: Party in Limerick

My cousin drove my brothers and my friend’s girlfriend down. My friend and I were going to take the train, because I had tickets, but we missed the first train because we were too busy drinking.

When we eventually got a train, we ended up stranded in Limerick Junction because there was a train strike. Eventually, they got us a taxi.

I don’t remember much of the night. I do remember downing a bottle of creme de menthes the next morning as mouthwash though :)

See more progress on: Have a 21st Birthday to remember

Idę!

2006-01-23T03:17:00.000Z

I just got my ticket. I’m going over from the 30th to the 3rd of February. My friend Leszek has gone home (he got a grant to start his own business), and invited me to stay.

I think, though, that I’ve been cursed by one of the girls I know :)

At Leszek’s going away party, he was telling me that his town is boring, and that I’ll have to find something else to do (while Beata was trying to talk me out of going in February), and suggested I visit Kraków. Beata piped up immediately “Yes! It’s the most beautiful city in the world! My city!”, so I said “Well, I was going to go, but now…” (she hit me).

Leszek: “No, you have to go!”
Me, in an overloud “I know she can hear me” whisper: “I know. Just don’t tell her that”.

So… after an initial look showed lots of flights to Wrocław (Leo lives near there), the only flights I could find with a credit card in hand (for less than 700 Euros) were to… Kraków.

See more progress on: Poland

Dilbert Blog: My Irrational Beliefs

2006-01-12T10:22:00.000Z

[I]t makes me wonder if creationist geologists are worse at finding oil than atheists. Somewhere in Calgary I imagine a conversation between a creationist geologist and his boss:

Boss: “Matthew, why haven’t you found any oil? All the other guys have.”

Matthew: “Well, I’ve been drilling everywhere looking for carved stone tablets from God but all I find are these stupid fossils.”

I’m told that evolution is useful for a whole range of scientific things that I don’t know about or don’t understand. For example, I’m told that if you don’t believe that mammals evolved from lower life forms you’d be a crappy microbiologists. Every time you observed some viruses acquiring immunity you would stop working on a vaccine and sacrifice your first born son.

The Dilbert Blog

I.T. Agony Bingo

2006-01-08T22:01:00.000Z

From Userfriendly

Online grammar book

2006-01-06T01:14:00.000Z

I really like this book—I have a Russian grammar book, but it doesn’t have anything about particables in it. I’m not anywhere near the stage¹ where I’d feel comfortable trying to use them, but having come across their use in Polish, I thought I’d have a look.

I also found this book but the fonts are completely screwed up, so it’s basically useless to me.

¹ I’m still learning to read Cyrillic. I’ve gone slightly past the 4-year-old reading level, but still occassionally mix ц and ч.

See more progress on: learn Russian

Dilbert Blog: Ideals

2006-01-02T13:12:00.000Z

As you know, the Founding Fathers had a lot of time to write things down because they didn’t have television, and there are only so many hours that you can spend whittling new teeth. But I don’t believe they ever got together and created a document called the Bill of Ideals. To understand their ideals we must look to their actions. Here are a few of the ideals they apparently shared:

1. Slavery – excellent source of poontang
2. Women voting? That’s crazy talk!
3. People who don’t own land suck
4. A good way to change tax policy is through violence
5. It’s not really crossdressing if you also wear manly boots.
6. Treason is okay if you have a good reason.
7. No one wants to sit next to Ben Franklin

The Dilbert Blog: Ideals

Classic Linus

2006-01-01T16:33:00.000Z

Pretty much the ONLY people who ever complain about those internal kernel interfaces changing are the free-loaders. It's hard for them, because theydon't want to play according to the rules. Tough. Watch me not care:

[ Linus sits in his chair, patently not caring ]

See?

Linux-Kernel Archive: Re: userspace breakage

No, I don't want to "quit smoking"

2005-12-30T19:28:00.000Z

Quite apart from the fact that that goal is mired in the language of defeat, this is a different goal, though it is basically all in how you look at it, but hopefully the use of a different term will be enough to shut up the whiny kind of non-smoker who would make me want to light up just to blow smoke in their faces.

Maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to avoid most of the patronising crap about health (listen to Bill Hicks—non-smokers die every day!), money (I can afford to smoke, thanks), and will power (I’ve managed to avoid punching every non-smoker who has ever tried to lecture me—I’ve got lots of will power).

Mostly, I think I’ll just avoid thinking about it as a pleasure I’m denying myself, because that hasn’t been true for years. That’s why I’m doing it.

See more progress on: become a non-smoker

My Mother's blonde moments

2005-12-25T11:46:00.000Z

My Mother's been having a few of these recently.

Moment #1: My sister was talking about "buffalo wings"
"Do buffaloes have wings?"

Moment #2: I was showing her the Christmas present I had bought for my sister, who has recently gone into business as a masseuse -- a reproduction of the first edition of "Gray's Anatomy"
"Is that to tie in with the TV show?"

Dilbert blog: Winning by Knockout

2005-12-25T11:12:00.000Z

I always consider myself a winner by knockout whenever someone distorts my point to something ridiculous and then argues against the ridiculous thing. That seems like an acknowledgement that my real point is unassailable. Why else would someone need to invent a whole new point to argue against?

Knockout!

The Dilbert Blog: Winning by Knockout

Hmm...

2005-12-20T17:50:00.000Z

A friend of mine is a big (big!) Pink Floyd fan, and I know he hasn’t done this yet… maybe I should get him “The Wizard of Ozz” for Christmas :)

See more progress on: Watch "The Wizard of Oz" at the same time as listening to Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"

I love this comic

2005-12-20T13:46:00.000Z

Today's Pearls Before Swine

Marketing lesson from the Dilbert Blog.

2005-12-20T05:14:00.000Z

Several years ago I found myself nutsack deep in flaming e-mails for my prediction that illegal downloads of music would lead to lower sales of CDs. It seemed obvious to me, but scores of illegal music downloaders and self-proclaimed marketing geniuses argued vehemently that these “free samples” would lead to increased sales of CDs. That didn’t happen, of course, because it turns out that people prefer “free and instant” over “overpriced and later.” This experience reinforced my belief that my MBA gave me a better understanding of markets than my verbal sparring partners got from doing bongs and thinking as hard as they could.

...

I don’t regret making God’s Debris available for free. I had nothing to lose, since the hardcopy of God’s Debris was published in 2001 and had run its course. I was happy just to know that I had one of the most read books on earth for a month. It was worth a shot. But I think I demonstrated one marketing truth: When something is free, that’s what people expect to pay for the next one.

The Dilbert Blog

Interesting quote

2005-12-20T03:29:00.000Z

Most folk who are against the user-intuitive desktop lived through seeing Microsoft rise (and lately, fall). They also lived through a group of people known as AOLers destroying some other things they worked together to build, such as usenet, irc, most of the rest of the Internet… They’re afraid that if the common man decided Linux is the operating system of choice, Linux will be destroyed, too.

Tickled to Death » Blog Archive » Has everyone gone bloody mad?

Universal binaries

2005-11-21T18:49:00.000Z

Funny citation from Universal Binary Programming Guidelines, 2nd edition (taken out of context):

Here are the most typical behavior problems you'll observe when your application runs natively on an Intel-based Macintosh computer: 1. The application crashes.

Pavel's diary: Education day - universal binaries

Her name is Alexa

2005-11-21T18:30:00.000Z

Isn't she pretty?

Pixie

2005-11-21T18:22:00.000Z

She looks like you or I...but half the size. its wierd. And kind of erotic. She isn't a dwarf in the stubby arms and legs way, just a pretty little thing that happens to be tiny. She could sit on my lap quite easily too. Hmmmm....And I could cart her around on my shoulder like a giant...stomping my feet and singing sea shanties. Wearing a flannel shirt, sleeves rolled up, and a pair of britches and braces.

Oh you know, life, that sorta bull.

From my friend's blog. Potentially offensive, but funny.

I'm an uncle!

2005-11-21T17:13:00.000Z

No real details as yet (other than girl, 8lbs), but... what the title says.

Phone stuff

2004-11-02T22:20:00.000Z

Cellspotting: is a global location based service for mobile users Celltrack: is a program to collect some phone information about the cell you are connected to - like the net monitor. GNUbox: is a simple program for the Nokia 7650 which allows you to configure the smartphone to access the Internet through an Infrared or Bluetooth access point. Gnapplet: use with Gnokii to manage a phone. BT dongles supported by Linux. Bemused: control an MP3 player with Bluetooth. Series 60 & Linux Multisync: Has SyncML support. Sync4j OPL: Open source Basic-like language for Symbian. * Firewall tunnel

New phone

2004-11-02T07:42:00.000Z

I got a Blackberry phone friday and my mail settings came through today. It's pretty sweet but I have to figure out how to use attachments.

phto0027

2004-10-30T22:23:00.000+01:00

Mark: What are you, a whipping girl?
Angela: No, I'm a dominatrix
Mark: A domi-what-what?

phto0027
Originally uploaded by jimregan.

Another scraper

2004-10-24T17:41:00.000+01:00

I only read Telsa's diary occasionally; maybe having a feed in liferea would change that.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use XML::RSS;
use LWP::Simple;
use HTML::Entities;

my $rss = new XML::RSS (version => '1.0');
my $url = "http://www.linux.org.uk/~telsa/Diary/diary.html";
my $page = get($url);

$rss->channel(title       => "The more accurate diary. Really.",
              link        => $url,
              description => "Telsa's diary of life with a hacker:" 
	      		     . " the current ramblings");

foreach (split ('<dt>', $page))
{
	if (/<a\sname="([^"]*)">
		<strong>
		([^>]*)
		<\/strong><\/a><\/dt>\s*<dd>
		(.*)<\/dd>/six)
	{
		$rss->add_item(title       => $2,
			       link        => "$url#$1",
		       	       description => encode_entities($3));
	}
}

print $rss->as_string;

Michael Moore scraper improved

2004-10-24T15:53:00.000+01:00

Now with added /x-ness!

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use XML::RSS;
use LWP::Simple;
use HTML::Entities;

sub findurl ($$)
{
	my $title = shift;
	my $pagein = shift;
	if ($pagein =~ /<a href="(index.php\?id=[^"]*)">$title<\/a>/i)
	{
		return "http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/diary/$1";
	}
}
							

my $rss = new XML::RSS (version => '1.0');
my $url = "http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/diary/index.php";
my $page = get($url);

$rss->channel(title       => "Mike's Blog",
              link        => $url,
              description => "Michael Moore's blog");

foreach (split ('<table ', $page))
{
	if (/<p><span\sclass="smallText"><i>
		([^>]*)
		<\/i><\/span><br>[\r\n]*<span\sclass="titleText">
		([^>]*)
		<\/span><\/p>[\r\n]*<p>
		(<p>.*<\/p>)
		[\r\n]*<\/p>\n/six)
	{
		$rss->add_item(title       => $2,
			       link        => findurl($2, $page),
		       	       description => $1 . encode_entities($3));
	}
}

print $rss->as_string;

Michael Moore's blog

2004-10-24T15:38:00.000+01:00

Is here. Scraper, here:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use XML::RSS;
use LWP::Simple;
use HTML::Entities;

sub findurl ($$)
{
	my $title = shift;
	my $pagein = shift;
	if ($pagein =~ /<a href="(index.php\?id=[^"]*)">$title<\/a>/i)
	{
		return "http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/diary/$1";
	}
}
							

my $rss = new XML::RSS (version => '1.0');

my $page = get("http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/diary/index.php");

$rss->channel(title       => "Mike's Blog",
              link        => "http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/diary/index.php",
              description => "Michael Moore's blog");

foreach (split ('<table ', $page))
{
	if (/<p><span class="smallText"><i>([^>]*)<\/i><\/span><br>[\r\n]*<span class="titleText">([^>]*)<\/span><\/p>[\r\n]*<p>(<p>.*<\/p>)[\r\n]*<\/p>\n/si)
	{
		$rss->add_item(title       => $2,
			       link        => findurl($2, $page),
		       	       description => $1 . encode_entities($3));
	}
}

print $rss->as_string;

Bill Bailey's blog

2004-10-22T22:02:00.000+01:00

Bill Bailey has a blog! Bill Bailey's blog doesn't have a feed! Solution:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use XML::RSS;
use LWP::Simple;
use HTML::Entities;

my $page;
my $rss = new XML::RSS (version => '1.0');

$page = get("http://www.bill-bailey.co.uk/blog/index.php");
$rss->channel(title       => 'Bill Bailey',
              link        => 'http://www.bill-bailey.co.uk/blog/index.php',
              description => 'Bill Bailey\'s Blog');
      
my @chunks = split ('<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">', $page);

my ($date, $link, $content, $title);

foreach (@chunks)
{
	if (/<td class="BlogTitle">\s*([^\r\n]*)[\r\n\s]*<\/td>/is)
        {
		$date = $1;	
	}
	if (/<td class="BlogHeader">\s*([^\r\n]*)[\r\n\s]*<\/td>/is)
	{
		$title = $1;
	}
	if (/<td class="BlogText">(.*)<\/td>\s*<\/tr>\s*<tr>\s*<td>&nbsp;/is)
	{
		$content = encode_entities($1);
	}
	if (/<td class="BodyText">\s*<a href="([^"]*)">Read comments/is)
	{
		$link = "http://www.bill-bailey.co.uk$1";
	}
	if ($date && $title && $content && $link)
	{
		$rss->add_item(title       => $title,
			       link        => $link,
		       	       description => $content,
		       	       dc => {date => $date});

	}
}

print $rss->as_string;

More Bill Bailey here.

Userfriendly scraper

2004-10-22T14:51:00.000+01:00

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use LWP::Simple;
use XML::RSS;
use Date::Format;

# These regexes taken from Dailystrips
my $patternpre = "<img.+?src=\"(http://www\.userfriendly\.org/cartoons/archives/%y.+?/uf.+?\.gif)\"";
my $urlpre = "http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=%Y%m%d&mode=classic";

my $pattern = time2str ($patternpre, time);
my $url = time2str ($urlpre, time);

my $page = get($url);

my $rss = new XML::RSS (version => '1.0');

$rss->channel(title       => 'User Friendly',
	      link	  => 'http://userfriendly.org/',
	      description => 'User Friendly the Comic Strip');

if ($page =~ /$pattern/ig)
{
	$rss->add_item(title       => time2str("CARTOON FOR %a %b, %Y",time),
	               link        => "$url",
       	               description => "&lt;img src='$1' /&gt;");
}
	
	
print $rss->as_string;

I got fed up of using overblown commands to HTMLise these things, so I have a little sed script now:

s/&/\&amp;/g
s/</\&lt;/g
s/>/\&gt;/g
s/"/\&quot;/g

I changed sun-pic.pl. The line

foreach (split ("\r\n", $page))

is now

foreach (split ("\n", $page))

Xchat hello abused...

2004-10-21T03:27:00.000+01:00

To implement the social commands in FlickrLive.

__module_name__ = "flickr" 
__module_version__ = "1.0" 
__module_description__ = "flickr social commands" 
 
import xchat

otheruser = "This social command requires the name of another user"

command_list = """
/apologize
/applaud
/blink
/blush
/bounce
/brood
/comfort
/cough
/cringe
/evileye
/flirt
/frown
/giggle
/goose
/groan
/highfive
/hit
/hug
/kiss
/laugh
/lick
/massage
/nudge
/pinch
/pout
/punch
/shrug
/smile
/spank
/tickle
/wave
/wink
"""

def apologize_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME apologizes to %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def applaud_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME applauds %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def blink_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME blinks")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def blush_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME blushes")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def bounce_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME bounces")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def brood_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME broods")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def comfort_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME comforts %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def commands_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	print command_list
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def cough_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME coughs")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def cringe_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME cringes")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def evileye_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME gives %s the evil eye" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def flirt_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME flirts with %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def frown_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME frowns")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def giggle_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME giggles")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def goose_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	print "WTF?"
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def groan_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME groans")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def highfive_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME gives %s a high five" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def hit_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME hits %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def hug_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME hugs %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def kiss_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME kisses %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE


def laugh_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME laughs")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def lick_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME licks %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def massage_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME massages %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def nudge_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME nudges %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def pinch_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME pinches %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def pout_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME shrugs")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def punch_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME punches %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def shrug_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME shrugs")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def smile_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME smiles")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def spank_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME spanks %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def tickle_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print otheruser
	else:
		xchat.command("ME tickles %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def wave_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		xchat.command("ME waves")
	else:
		xchat.command("ME waves to %s" % word_eol[1])
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

def wink_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	xchat.command("ME winks")
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

xchat.hook_command("apologize", apologize_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("applaud", applaud_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("blink", blink_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("bounce", bounce_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("brood", brood_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("comfort", comfort_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("commands", commands_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("cough", cough_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("cringe", cringe_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("evileye", evileye_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("flirt", _cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("frown", frown_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("giggle", giggle_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("goose", goose_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("groan", groan_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("highfive", highfive_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("hit", hit_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("hug", hug_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("kiss", kiss_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("laugh", laugh_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("lick", lick_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("massage", massage_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("nudge", nudge_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("pinch", pinch_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("pout", pout_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("punch", punch_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("shrug", shrug_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("smile", smile_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("spank", spank_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("tickle", tickle_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("wave", wave_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")
xchat.hook_command("wink", wink_cb, help="Use /commands for more information")

I used FlickrLive a few days ago, and got a nice testimonial from Meer:

"It was a chance meeting in the night--day--like two ships sometimes do before they hit the lighthouse, which really, they shouldn't be doing in the day, 'cuz that says something bad about the intoxication of the captains... ...oh, right. He's one of those guys that you meet once and know is unique. And smart. And a clever writer."

Hello Xchat

2004-10-21T02:57:00.000+01:00

An xchat hello command. Why not?

__module_name__ = "hellocmd" 
__module_version__ = "1.0" 
__module_description__ = "A hello command" 
 
import xchat

def hello_cb(word, word_eol, userdata):
	if len(word) < 2:
		print "Hello World!"
	else:
		print "Hello %s" % word_eol[1]
	return xchat.EAT_NONE

xchat.hook_command("hello", hello_cb, help="/hello <person>, says hello 
                   to person, or hello world")

That's just looking to be abused :) Saw this , about WinFS. Nothing like [insert name of query language]. Not at all.

Even more LG headlines...

2004-10-21T01:10:00.000+01:00

I didn't realise that last post went through - I thought I cancelled it when Blogger refused to add <script> tags. I found the problem - the apostrophe in Barry O'Donovan's name. I think I'll get rid of the separate paragraphs for article & author, and call it a day.

More LG headlines

2004-10-20T23:36:00.000+01:00

I added it, the script should work, but doesn't seem to want to. So I'll try including it here, as well as Meerkat's (not Meercat :) output:

Linux Gazette headlines

2004-10-20T22:43:00.000+01:00

I came across this O'Reilly page about Meercat a few days ago, and figured the Javascript stuff might be nice to provide for LG fans who want to promote us. I have it embedded in the panel to the right, but it refers to one article in an issue that hasn't been published yet. I think it looks OK, but I'm not done with it yet. When it's ready, the code to add to your site/blog will most likely be:

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript"
src="http://linuxgazette.net/lg.js"></script>

Scraping the Sun

2004-10-20T22:12:00.000+01:00

I read The Sun. There, I admitted it. I work in a factory, and it's good to keep up with the news that everyone else reads, but mostly it's because I like looking at pictures of scantily clad women. [shrug] The Sun has a really annoying site though. Two of the pages I read most often are the "Viral Emails" and Bizarre Exposed. So I figured I'd script some of it. sun-viral.pl: This creates an RDF feed from the Viral page that I can use from Liferea.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use XML::RSS;
use LWP::Simple;

#my $testpage = "http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,13-2004480024,00.html";
my $toppage = get('http://www.thesun.co.uk/section/0,,1,00.html');
my $page;
my $pageurl;
my $rss = new XML::RSS (version => '1.0');

if ($toppage =~ m!(/article/0,,13[^"']*)!)
{
	 $pageurl = "http://www.thesun.co.uk" . $1;
}

if (!$pageurl)
{
	exit -1;
}
$page = get($pageurl);
$rss->channel(title       => 'The Sun: Viral Emails',
                 link        => $pageurl,
                 description => 'The Sun: Viral Emails');
      
my @lines = split ("<[tT][Rr]", $page);

foreach (@lines)
{
	if (m!'(/popupWindow/0,,13[^"']*)', \d+, \d+, 'email\d+'\);">([^<]*)</A>!i)
	{
		$rss->add_item(title       => "$2",
 			          link        => 'http://www.thesun.co.uk' . $1,
		       	          description => "$pageurl");
	}
}

print $rss->as_string;

sun-bizarre.pl: This scrapes Bizarre (I haven't gotten around to the rest of it yet)

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use XML::RSS;
use LWP::Simple;

my $page = get('http://www.thesun.co.uk/section/0,,4,00.html');

my $rss = new XML::RSS (version => '1.0');

$rss->channel(title       => 'The Sun: Bizarre',
     	      link        => 'http://www.thesun.co.uk/section/0,,4,00.html',
	      description => 'The Sun: Bizarre');

# Eek! .* is a bit much, though it works.
# Matches top story
if ($page =~ m!<tr><td colspan=\"\d\"><a href=\"(/article/0,,.*\.html)\"><img src=\"http://images.thesun.co.uk/picture/.*\.gif\" alt=\"([^"]*)\"!)
{
	#print "$1, $2";
	$rss->add_item(title => "$2",
	 	       link =>  'http://www.thesun.co.uk' . $1);
}

# Other stories

my @lines = split ("<[tT][Rr]", $page);

foreach (@lines)
{
	if (m!<td style=[^>]*><a (class=\"[^"]+\" )?href=\"(/article/0,,.*\.html)\"[^>]*>([^<]*)</a><br>[\r\n]*<span[^>]*>([^<]*)[\r\n]*<[/]?td!is)	
	{
#		print "$2, $3, $4";
		$rss->add_item(title       => "$3",
			       link        => 'http://www.thesun.co.uk' . $2,
			       description => "$4");
	}
}

print $rss->as_string;

sun-pic.pl: This downloads the "Click here" images -- I don't like popups, and I don't like having popups open as new tabs much eithier.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use LWP::Simple;

my $uri = shift;
my $page = get ($uri);

my $uris;

foreach (split ("\r\n", $page))
{
	if (m!(/popupWindow/[^.]*.html)!i)
	{
		$uris .= "http://www.thesun.co.uk$1 ";
	}
	elsif (m!window.open\('(http://images.thesun.co.uk/picture/0,,[^,]*,00.[gj][ip][fg])'!i)
	{
		$uris .= "$1 ";
	}
}
`cd /home/jimmy/.download && wget --referer=$uri -x $uri $uris`;

foreach (split (" ", $uris))
{
	if (/htm[l]+$/i)
	{
		$page = get ($_);
		foreach (split ("\r\n", $page))
		{
			if (m!(http://images.thesun.co.uk/picture[s]?/0,,[^,]*,00.[gj][ip][fg])!i)
			{
				`cd /home/jimmy/Pictures && wget $1`;
			}
		}
	}
}

Another week

2004-10-06T02:46:00.000+01:00

Another week off work. Last Thursday I went to Cashel to get my stiches removed, and the nurse put a finger cot on my finger, which was extremely painful. The next day I decided to do a mass hair removal, and it got soaked in the shower. Removed it afterwards to find that it had been cutting off the bloodflow to the finger. Got a lot of odd feelings in the finger, so I went to the factory doctor, who told me I couldn't be around extremes of temperature, so no work this week. Been reading and watching movies mostly. I got "Going Postal" last Thursday, reread "Night Watch" and "Equal Rites", started reading "System of the World", and watched "The Pianist" among others. Collected quotes, as usual. Equal Rites: "a hint was to Esk what a mosquito bite was to the average rhino because she was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don't apply to you." "Esk, of course, had not been trained, and it is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you're attempting can't be done. A person ignorant of the possibility of failure can be a halfbrick in the path of the bicycle of history." "They both savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were ignorant of only ordinary things." Night Watch: "It wasn't that he'd liked being shot at by hooded figures in the temporary employ of his many and varied enemies, but he'd always looked at it as some kind of vote of confidence. It showed that he was annoying the rich and arrogant people who ought to be annoyed." "'Yeah, all right, but everyone knows they torture people,' mumbled Sam. 'Do they?' said Vimes. 'Then why doesn't anyone do anything about it?' ''cos they torture people.' Ah, at least I was getting a grasp of basic social dynamics, thought Vimes." "Ninety per cent of most magic merely consists of knowing one extra fact." "This was a very thorough cell. Not even sound was meant to escape" Going Postal: "The broom must have been kept as an ornament, because it certainly hadn't been used much on the accumulations in the stable yard. On the positive side, it meant that he had fallen into something soft. On the negative side, this meant he had fallen into something soft." "Dimwell Arrhythmic Rhyming Slang: Various rhyming slangs are known, and have given the universe such terms as 'apples and pears' (stairs), 'rubbity-dub' (pub) and 'busy bee' (General Theory of Relativity). The Dimwell Street rhyming slang is probably unique in that it does not, in fact, rhyme. No one knows why, but theories so far advanced are 1) that it is quite complex and in fact follows hidden rules or 2) Dimwell is well named or 3) it's made up to annoy strangers, which is the case with most such slangs." "What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter." "And if Moist von Lipwig couldn't cream a little somethi-- a big something off the top, and the bottom, and maybe a little off the sides, then he didn't deserve to!" "'You wrote everything down, Crispin?' he said. 'Why?' Crispin looked apalled. 'Got to keep records, Reacher,' he said. 'Can't cover y'tracks if you don't know where y'left 'em. Then ... can put it all back, see, hardly a crime at all.'" "You had to admire the way perfectly innocent words were mugged, ravished, stripped of all true meaning and decency and then sent to walk the gutter for Reacher Gilt, although 'synergistically' had probably been a whore from the start."

"A Certain Chemistry" quotes

2004-09-28T01:28:00.000+01:00

"Her reply was to hoist up her nightdress and moon at me. Bit of an own goal, though, of course. Men can moon and it's funny or abusive or whatever. If a woman bends over and shows her bare bottom to you, well, the worst that can happen is you'll be too choked up with gratitude to get the words 'Thank you' out properly." "(copy editors, like, say, computer programmers or proctologists, are the kind of people you're hugely thankful exist, but whom you can't help worrying about at some very deep level)" "'There I am, supposed to be talking about my autobiography, and I can't think because my whole life is flashing before my eyes - how ironic is that?'" "We talked on and on. Talked for many times longer than we'd spent having sex, and, in its own way, it was better than the sex. Jesus. What am I on about? No it wasn't - the sex part was fucking stupendous. I appear to have started talking bollocks: sorry - that's the writer in me coming out, that is." "If you love your girlfriend, but you're planning to have sex with another woman the next day, then you feel a responsibility to massage her feet for absolutely however long she wants you to. It's all about respect, really." "'Keep an eye on me. After the third bottle [of wine] I might try to start a fight with someone but, if I don't, I'll need you to remind me.'" "When people say, 'I couldn't be happier!' they may well be right. When they say, 'I couldn't be any more miserable,' they are almost certainly grossly underestimating. I'd thought I'd felt like shit that day, but really I'd barely even entered the intestine." "Tom might feel like he's hurting 'cause he's lost Sara, but he's just hurting 'cause that's what happens to anyone at this point. The chemicals he's been getting are close to cocaine or nicotine not just 'cause they induce the same kind of pleasure, but 'cause they're addictive like them too. ... It's no wonder that now he's feeling just like someone who's going cold turkey." "They weren't meant to be together - or not meant to be together - they just met and were together for a while. Molecules and opportunity. That's the way you've got to look at these things."

New pTerry!

2004-09-24T02:13:00.000+01:00

"Going Postal" is out soon! (I'm doing a little dance here, being really freakin' careful to not move my hand.) There's an excerpt here

“Look,” said Moist, “I don’t know what’s happening here, but I don’t know anything about delivering post!” “Mr. Lipwig, this morning you had no experience at all of being dead, and yet but for my intervention you would nevertheless have turned out to be extremely good at it,” said Lord Vetinari sharply. “It just goes to show: you never know until you try.”

I read "The Metamorphosis" yesterday. Great book. Related to it a bit too much, but great book. Found where I left "A Certain Chemistry" but didn't get around to reading much. Still extracted a few quotes though: "My academic career was indifferent to the point of beauty: I was so unremarkable, in every way, that the unvarying precision of my mediocrity achieved a kind of loveliness." "I'd scan the stock, ignoring everything but the price labels and the alcohol content of each item, do a quick 'cost divided by strength' calculation to work out the underlying Getting Pissed score of everything, and then go with whatever seemed most efficiently engineered."

Misc

2004-09-22T20:21:00.000+01:00

Note to self :) Quote from the PG newsletter:

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.

Transformer name: Mark Hogan, from this day forward you will also be known as: Webclaw PG: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/4/8/13484/13484-8.txt http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/4/7/13473/13473-mid/13473-all.mid http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/1/5/13153/13153-mid/13153-all.mid http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/5/1/13510/13510-h/13510-h.htm http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/5/3250/3250.txt http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/tprnc11.txt http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/8ldvc10.txt http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/metam10h.htm http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext01/wrnpc11.txt (I doubt I'll read the last - "War and Peace" - but it's nice to know where it is :)

More Leftism

2004-09-22T20:04:00.000+01:00

Managed to shower, though my left arm isn't as clean as it could be. Got my prescription. My mother collected it for me, and was interrogated by the chemist, who thought the painkillers a bit strong - glad I didn't go drinking. Joe tried to make out that Shocks was asking if I could hold a plectrum, but I just cleared out some old messages on my phone, and received this:

Sender: Joe Time: 21-Sept-2004 16:38:53 How bads the hand, i only herd ya reefd yrself, wen i ws hedin home, every1 seemd 2 tink it was fairly bad, all i cud tink ws, 'shit,he needs 2 hands 4 gtar'

and this:

Sender: Joe Time: 21-Sept-2004 17:04:21 Oh, and if ya hav a can holdin hand, call up 2 the gaf 4 kenys bday, we r getin fukd up, no work 2moro n all

Transformers

2004-09-22T13:44:00.000+01:00

This came from Paul:

Maybe people have seen this but here be a cool link to see what you name would be if you were a transformer: If anyone knows the address of the wu-tang clan name generator i would appreciate it. http://www.coldhardslag.com/tfname So from this day forth I will be known as WRECKPATH. I imagine i am a robot that can turn into some kind of countyu council JCB with those big jackhammers that they use to rip up the road. But question is will I be an autobot or a dastardly decepticon? Methinks i will be a good autobot then work my way up to being Optimus primes right hand man and trusted confidante then sneakily destroy him by putting sugar in his gas tank and reveal that i was a decepticon all along Bwah ha ha ha. (I really am watching too much wrestling) Was anyone watching the new series that started on SKY one last night called DEADWOOD? I heard it was popular in the states (or with the yanks, as thurles people would say) so i decided to watch it. Anyone else who saw it will surely agree: "JESUS CHRIST I HAVE NEVER HEARD SO MUCH FUCKING BASTARDING SHIT EATING COCKSUCKING CUNTING LANGUAGE IN A TV SHOW IN MY LIFE" Even i was shocked with the amount of cursing but the show didnt seem that great I will keepwatching to see how it goes until it warps my fragile innocent little mind. And thats pretty much all i have to say about that. Talk to ye soon.

"Jimmy O'Regan, from this day forward you will also be known as: Vector beef" I think I prefer Lefty.

Call me "Lefty"

2004-09-22T13:37:00.000+01:00

I had another accident at work yesterday. At the end of the day, we have to dispose of the slicer blades, which are hoop blades. We've been told time and again to throw them into the skip outside. I've been moved to the new line, which uses a longer blade than the others - which I'm used to. Normally, I break the blade in several places so I don't have to worry about the natural spring in the blade, but because I'm not used to these blades, I thought I would be playing it safe to not break it - this usually leads to several small cuts. As I threw the blade into the skip, the longer than usual blade snagged in my shorter than usual jacket - those of us who come in contact with meat wear knee lenth jackets, but the only jackets available were the ones for the packing area, which are a few inches shorter. If it had been one of the usual blades or jackets, I would have gone home as usual after a relatively boring day, but instead, the blade snagged while my hand kept moving, and the blade went halfway through my little finger. Quite painful. My friend John, who I've known since my school days, was emptying bins, and came over to me straight away. My instinct was to walk straight home, because I had a bad experience with first aid there after my last cut, but I trust him, and let him lead me in to the first aid area. I have only good things to say about how the management acted; the manager wrapped my finger in gauze while the Health and Safety officer drove his car around. I changed out of my work clothes with relatively little assistance - I've lost the use of my arm through RSI a few times since I started there - I only needed help with the jacket because I was still in shock at the time. One the way to the doctors, the (outgoing - he's retiring soon) health and safety officer told me that he tells the line managers every week to tell people to not throw the blades into the skip, and every week he's ignored - injuries are all too common, and not just from disposal situations like mine - the guy who empties the skip has had more than his share. I went in to see the factory doctor. I unwrapped the gauze as he looked for something, accidentally wrapping it around my left hand (the nurse later took one look at my left hand and decided that was the injured hand :). He took a look at it: "Ah". He prodded the top to see if I could feel (no), and told me he was sending me to Cashel hospital. I went back out to the waiting room while the receptionist phoned Dew Valley, who arranged a taxi. Another patient asked what happened, and I told her. The rest looked to have been interested, and looked kind of relieved that I was cracking jokes. I went outside for a smoke and bumped into my cousin Justin, who lit it for me. His disbelief at my having two accidents in four weeks summed it all up. The taxi driver came, and gave me his card so he could arrange my way home. After a bit of a wait, behind people looking for x-rays, I was brought to the casualty area. A trainee nurse was sent to tend to me - they thought I was just a whinger who needed a plaster. After soaking off the bandage she gasped and asked the doctor to come over. Doctor: "Ah" Me: "Yeah, that's what the doctor who sent me here said" Doctor: "You're going to need several stitches" The doctor asked the trainee for some nylon thread. She gave a blank look, and told him she was a trainee. "Oh. You can assist me so". As he was dabbing on some iodine, she started rocking back and forth. "You can sit down for a few minutes if you're uncomfortable". The nurse who took her place started to reassure her. I looked over and said "hey, if anyone should be upset, it should be me". She came back over. The doctor told me he was going to use a local anaesthetic, like the dentist uses. The needle went in, stinging like usual. Not too bad. Then, when I wasn't expecting it, it went in again, and out the other side. And again. I had been gritting my teeth and digging my nails into my (other) hand with the throbs before this, but damn near drew blood then. He asked if I could straighten my finger, I did, and he gave me the shot, painlessly this time. So, he put in four stitches, and I only felt him pushing on my finger. But on the last stitch, I felt it clearly, and felt the thread running through "Ah... how long does this anaesthetic last?" "Yeah, yeah". He had to redo that, and the last of the anaesthetic was gone - I felt every bit of it, but held still so it wouldn't have to be done again. Then a nurse came over to dress my hand, and give me a tetanus shot. It was only as the curtain rolled back that I appreciated just how difficult it is to close a pants with just my left hand (I'm right handed). Joe had heard about it, and phoned later - people had had enough decency to stay around long enough to tell him. He dubbed me Lefty, asked if I could hold a plectrum :) and if I wanted to come to his house to drink. I declined, as I still smelled of bacon and couldn't shower (still have to figure out that one. I'll probably just tape a plastic bag over my hand), but mainly because if drinking is a bad idea after any of a) having a tetanus shot, b) taking painkillers or c) taking antibiotics, it must be a really bad idea after all three.

Mystery Men

2004-09-13T23:32:00.000+01:00

Watched Mystery Men. Brilliant. Capt. Amazing: I knew you couldn't change. Casanova Frankenstein: I knew you'd know that. Capt. Amazing: Oh, I know that. AND I knew you'd know I'd know you knew. Casanova Frankenstein: But I didn't. I only knew that you'd know that I knew. Did you know THAT? Capt. Amazing: Of course. Mr. Furious: We're an elite cadr-cadrey... The Bowler: Cadre. The Shoveller: You're in. The Bowler : See now, this is why mad scientists are generally less desirable than your common or garden variety scientist. Watched On The Edge last night. Great film. Reminds me of being a teenager, which is pretty disturbing.

FOAF extension vocabularies

2004-09-07T15:06:00.000+01:00

http://www.schemaweb.info/blogs/Blog.aspx?entryid=48

My desk

2004-09-07T04:01:00.000+01:00

I was surfing about the 'net, and stumbled across About.com's Freelance writing section. On of the things they offer is a set of daily exercises, so I figured "I'm game" and signed up for it. The idea behind it is that every day for 15 days, you're sent a set of writing exercises -- presumably, these are fairly broad topics that can be approached by anyone, without any research. Like being back in school, except I'm actually doing it :) So, exercise one is to write about my desk. The problem is, I don't have a desk. I have a corner press (which is full of my magazines and books), with my computer sitting on top. I don't have a proper chair, so I drag the nearest armchair. Some day soon I may need to do something about that, but for the moment, I think I can safely stick to my current setup -- I can surf the net, reading my favourite news sites when I get home from work, and not worry about falling asleep. The top of this "desk" is pretty indicative of the amount of order in my life -- there is none. There are books perched on top of the computer, CDs on top of the books, an ever growing pile of rubbish behind the monitor, a stack of magazines and books beside the chair (I did say that the press is full!). The worst part of it is, most of the rubbish behind the monitor isn't even mine, so I can't junk or file most of it -- I haven't got the faintest idea what to do with most of it. Even worse is that sealed, unaddressed envelope lying between the wall and the monitor -- I don't know if it was left there for me, but I'm pretty sure that if I was to open it, all hell would break loose -- anyone who happens to use the 'net has to sit here, and generally adds to the pile of clutter. Another thing for the TODO list. I suppose that since I'm coming to the end of the time for this exercise, I should close with a resolution: if that damned envelope is still here tomorrow, I'm going to open it... once I've found a similar envelope, in case I need to reseal :)

Links in e-mail posts

2004-09-04T02:24:00.000+01:00

At least I now know that links in e-mail posts to Blogger have to be on the same line - here's that link again: Linux Gazette. Hopefully it'll work.

Good day for music

2004-09-04T02:01:00.000+01:00

For me at least. At the moment, Headbanger's Ball is on. Alice in Chains ("Them Bones"), Kyuss ("Green Machine"), Down ("Stone the Crow"), and Refused and Dillenger Escape Plan. Other than that, I did fuck all today. Edited a bit for Linux Gazette, but that was about it. Other than that, I went to Joe's house to play some music. After a shameful showing, trying to play RATM (we were able to play all 4 Rage albums last time we practised... about 2 years ago), we tried some metal and hit our groove. After Joe switched from bass to guitar, and after showing him a few Carcass riffs ("No Love Lost" and "Heartwork") we tried a riff of mine, which he had no end of trouble with 2 years ago when we tried it last. Because it was "new" to him, and possibly because of his trial by metal fire (trying to play bass for my friend Trev's band), he showed actual interest in a song that has time changes, a timing oddity at the start (song is in 4/4, but the first bar is the verse riff in 3/4), and a lengthy lead at the end. (Oh! "Thieves" by Ministry is on now. Truly with this metal you are spoiling me MTV2. One of these days I'll buy that "In case you didn't feel like showing up...live" video). I spent most of the evening learning how to play guitar standing up, playing through an amp, today. It only hit me just how out of practise I am a few months ago, when I went to Rory's house and tried it then -- I've spent a lot of time playing guitar in the last year and a half since I last had my amp, but it was mostly just playing along to CDs. It was no big deal to me to sell my amp back to Joe (though I did need the money for a phone bill) six months ago, which should have been a warning sign, but wasn't. It was only when I was in Rory's attic, unable to play riffs I should have known that it hit me. Now... well, at least I know I can solo at the drop of a hat, but I need to relearn a lot of riffs, and write some new riffs. But things are still looking up.

New shift

2004-09-01T04:40:00.000+01:00

As of Saturday, I changed shifts at work. Joe arranged it - he originally intended to join my shift - so we can start a band. So I was on nights instead of days. Bit of a culture shock, to go from my former shift to this - my previous supervisor is laid back, and doesn't mind what we do so long as the work is done, but my new supervisor has rules for everything, and has no problem eating the heads off anyone who breaks them. It was OK though, until 12am yesterday, when I was cutting something and picked up the wrong knife. I thought I had a blunt knife, and put a good bit of effort into cutting, and the knife ended up halfway through my knuckle. It seems I'll have to go to the factory doctor to see about getting stitches, because the damn thing bleeds any time I move my hand. At least it'll make it easier to turn my back on the place in January, as I've been planning.

phto0007

2004-08-28T18:13:00.000+01:00

My first electric guitar

phto0007
Originally uploaded by jimregan.

PHTO0011: Mark in Dublin Zoo, 2nd August

2004-08-07T19:44:00.000+01:00

I brought Mark to Dublin Zoo on Monday. I had taken two weeks holidays to spend with him, but found out after I had booked them that his mother is taking him to Germany next week - they're going tomorrow, in fact.

Paul was going to go for a drive anyway, so he offered to bring us. I decided to buy a digital camera for the heck of it, so I have photos... yay!

I spent most of my pay for three weeks between that, and drinking for my birthday Saturday & Sunday - Saturday was a disaster, so I had to have a do-over. After having a brief panic attack at work last Thursday, after misreading my ATM statement, I ended up broke anyway. Oh well.

My birthday ended up being a disaster because a) most of the lads were waiting for Sunday night (band holiday weekend), and b) Jimmy, who came down from Limerick for it, ended up getting arrested - I bumped into some girl in the club, she decided to blame Jimmy for whatever strange reason, her friends stuck by her, and he fucked them all out of it.

I tried to make peace, thought it had worked, and thought nothing else of it. Afterwards, I was chatting up some girl, and was just looking for a pen to get her number, when one of the friends of the girl from the club spotted Jimmy, and they tore into each other. One of the other guy's friends tried to put the boot in, so I went over and pushed him away, and told him to leave them to their own fight, if he wanted a fight, I'd give him one. The coward wasn't interested in that, and walked away. I turned around, and Jimmy and the other guy are being dragged away.

Still, better than most years, I think?

PHTO0011: Mark in Dublin Zoo, 2nd August
Originally uploaded by jimregan.

phto0014

2004-08-07T19:18:00.000+01:00

I went walking around town with my sister Angela today - she's afraid to go out by herself. We were passing Morrissey's, which reopened this week, and she, alco that she is, said "let's go in".

After one pint, she needed to make 4 toilet stops in the space of three quarters of an hour. There's something wrong with that girl.

phto0014
Originally uploaded by jimregan.

2004-07-27T23:40:00.000+01:00

Woohoo! BloGtk rules.

Another photo

2004-07-27T23:11:00.000+01:00

I'm trying a larger size image this time.

IMAGE0007
Originally uploaded by jimregan.

Photo of me and my son, Mark

2004-07-27T23:02:00.000+01:00

IMAGE0004, originally uploaded by jimregan.

This is a photo of me and Mark, taken May 2002.

The Last Hero quotes

2004-07-27T22:35:00.000+01:00

First man to be cut in half by a concealed blade is a rotten egg, okay? "I know you are being good-humoured about it, but I think it's vital that there is something that holds the crew together," said Carrot, still calmly sewing. "Yes, it's called skin. It's important to keep all of you on the inside of it." Rincewind stared at the badge. He'd never had one before. Well, that was technically a lie ... he'd had one that said 'Hello, I Am 5 Today!', which was just about the worst possible present to get when you are six. Here was a man who had truly seen life, mostly on the point of departure. "Well, if you're not going to expect unexpected flames, what's the point of going anywhere?" Archchancellor Ridcully decided that the crew needed to be trained. Ponder Stibbons pointed out that they were going into the completely unexpected, and Ridcully ruled therefore that they should be given some unexpected training. Rincewind, on the other hand, said that they were heading for certain death, which everyone managed eventually with no training whatsoever. Lord Vetinari was not a man who delighted in the technical. There were two cultures, as far as he was concerned. One was the real one, the other was occupied by people who liked machinery and ate pizza at unreasonable hours. "I have to tell you that I'm not sure that they have enough time or power to get back on to the Disc now." "What do you mean, you're not sure?" said Lord Vetinari. "Er ... I mean I am sure but, er, no one likes bad news all at once, sir."

Move along, nothing to see here

2004-07-27T22:11:00.000+01:00

I only created this to have a username to use to post a comment.