Category Archives: General

According to this story, the star Sagittarius is orbitted very closely by a planet. As the planet orbits it’s followed by a hotspot on the star’s surface!
I mention this because my star sign is Sagittarius 🙂

I’m about halfway through this book, the inspiration for Blade Runner, and it’s a great read! It’s much better than the film, but also quite different!
I’ve actually had the book quite a while – the Waterstones price tag at the back still has the Irish Punt and Euro prices on it, and I’m sorry I didn’t read it earlier.
Go buy it if you haven’t read it yet!

20 years ago my dad recorded me, my brothers and my sister talking and telling stories on a tape. I just had a listen and couldn’t tell who was who, but it was strange to hear my mother in the background..

Welcome all to 2004! Had a great night (certainly better than last year!), and was able to drive home, as I wasn’t drinking. I just hope that sweet girl who started chatting to me doesn’t carry out her threat.. Her boyfriend of 3 years is at sea tonight, he didn’t ring, and she’s upset. She’s an embalmer so she can hide the evidence when he comes home in a week and she kills him! *lol*
And to those of you still in 2003, 2004 has had a great start! Woohoo!

2003 is almost over and it’s been a hell of a ride with a lot of bad stuff and of course what I have come to regard as a good thing too so I can move forward in my life the way I want to.

I need a “book review” category! This, the first book from Jon McGregor, is a brilliant story! Most of the way through it I wondered why I bought it, as it’s about the mundane lives of the people living in a street of flats in some city in the UK. There must be some dozen characters there, from the old couple who walk to the bus, to the twins playing cricket, to the main character whose life we follow throughout. I guess that’s what attracts so many people to Soaps – everyday life.
The remarkable thing? I’ll leave that up to you to find out. It’s a good yarn, and cleverly mixes the past with the present. This Google Search will lead you to more about this book.

Wow, what an excellent short movie! More is a 6 minute movie that’s well worth a look at! (via /.)

Via Keith comes this link to a scathing “overview of France”. Some of the comments are hilarious! Some are so full of hypocrisy that I want to vomit, but it’s irresistible stuff! Finally, here’s one comment that got me thinking:

The bombing (October 3, 1980) was at a Jewish synagogue on the Rue Copernic and killed four people. As I recall, the Prime Minister was outraged, not that Jews were targeted, but as he said at the time, that “innocent Frenchmen” were wounded. Pigs.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t those people French too? Is a person a Jew first, then a member of their country? Should I change the by-line on my blog so it reads:

The weblog of a Catholic Irishman, Donncha O Caoimh.
All about PHP, web development, Catholic and Irish news and other stuff.

To be honest, I couldn’t care less what religion any particular person is as long as they live by the law of the land and treat people fairly. Terrorism from any side should be abhorred.
I agree that there’s trouble in France, but the same exists in every country – the rich get richer, and the poor just survive and watch the divide between them ever expand.

I like reading sites that challenge me, that are so completely different to my world view that I need to wrap my head around it and think carefully about what I’m reading. That’s one reason I like Keith’s blog! He’s a good techie but if we ever met we’d have an interesting conversation about politics!

About 10 weeks ago my girlfriend and I broke up. I’m not one for expressing myself in a public forum about my personal life so the matter has remained mostly offline.
On the advice of a very good friend I took to writing my thoughts and feelings down in a place where nobody will see them. Dead tree format’s too insecure so I’ve made a lot of use of Open Office!
Now I’m trying to figure out why writing things down helped so much! Maybe it’s just a coincidence, or perhaps it’s because I can write down what I wouldn’t tell anyone? I think it may be because by writing I need to concentrate. I need to face bare facts, and not have half forgotten conversations over a pint in a pub.
Hehe. I used to think my emotions, feelings and motivations were clear to me as I was “master of my own destiny” but the more I explore and examine the more I realise how little I know about what makes me tick!