Author Archives: Donncha

Call out Gouranga be happy!!!

I don’t get much spam any more. Greylisting keeps 99% of it out so when spam does get through it’s a surprise.
This morning I received the following from nitaigouranga@aol.com:

Call out Gouranga be happy!!!
Gouranga Gouranga Gouranga ….
That which brings the highest happiness!!

Looks like lots of other people received this mail too!
The Urban Dictionary has a humorous definition of gouranga:

A word that appears on motorway bridges in north west UK. It’s only purpose is to annoy drivers who are left with a nagging curiosity for the rest of their day until the next day when it ceases to become important ever again.

A New Pope

Pope Benedict XVI was elected earlier today. I can’t say it’s surprising they voted for Cardinal Ratzinger as he was easily the most well known of the cardinals. My initial impressions of the man aren’t good. He’s conservative and rigid, but hearing commentary through the day gives me pause for thought. I have heard that the media vilified him wrongly, so his Papacy may not be as clear-cut as people think.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ5

It arrived this morning! I ordered a DMC-Z5 from Pixmania.com last week and DHL delivered it this morning. Unfortunately, the manuals that came with it were in French, German, Italian and Dutch.. None of which I speak with sufficient proficiency to understand some of the finer points of this camera!

With some effort I found this page on the Panasonic website leading me to English language PDF manuals. This came as some surprise because another page said there was no online manual!

Now if only 7dayshop would get the Canon 20D sorted. Royal Mail possibly lost it but it’s the seller who’s responsible.

Later.. A small demo of the optical zoom:

I have two reasons for buying this camera:

  • I don’t want to drag thousands of Euro worth of camera into pubs where there’s lots of drinking and messing. I’m not crazy!
  • A huge number of birds visit my garden every day. It’s great to watch them closely with binoculors but if I can get in close with a camera too it’d be even better!

Bill Cullen: Golden Apples

I heard (the real) Bill Cullen on Ray D’arcy’s show yesterday. He’s very funny but wow, what energy! Ray said he had to lie down and rest after talking to him! At the ages of 63 he wants to be the first Irishman (disputed in two comments in this link) into space and has already paid a deposit on his ticket. I heard he hopes to raise at least 1 million Euro for charity by doing this!

Ian Dempsey’s show just played an excellent Gift Grub taking the piss this morning. Listen for the repeat tomorrow morning if you missed it!

If you’re wondering what all this is about, take a look about the Internet for more..

Breaking News – Risk-taking boys do not get the girls

Following on from my previous look at men, women and cars. Rebecca also pointed at this story: Risk-taking boys do not get the girls!

WHETHER it’s driving too fast, bungee-jumping or reckless skateboarding, young men will try almost anything to be noticed by the opposite sex. But a study of attitudes to risk suggests that the only people impressed by their stunts are other men.

But hey, if you want to impress the guys… 🙂

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