A little thing I love

The UK-Ireland common travel area. Ain't nothing like by-passing the sunburned hoards coming back from Spain.

The Hardest Part

Back in London after a Christmas at home. It wasn't just Christmas; it was over two weeks off. Woo! Although right now, it doesn't feel so good. After being around people and around my family for so long, I'm feeling living on my own for one of the first times. I know it'll wear out after a week or so, but for now it sucks. I do miss being around people, but coming home to an empty flat after work has its own benefits. In a little while I'll be fine; I keep telling myself that.

Scientia potentia est

It's been a long two months since I've entered ye olde blogosphere, and that's usually a sign that things have been busy. Life has indeed become much busier now that I have a real job and a real girlfriend and (in general) a real life. I started blogging at the start of the year as a way to channel my energy when I was a little unemployed. That worked and I think it helped me get back into the groove of writing. That has proved quite useful now as I essentially work for a magazine.

In my job we traffic knowledge. We collect it, shake it down, and then pass it on for a cash fee. Information is a big business. This is shown that my company has recently been taken over by an American company, iSuppli. iSuppli do more hardware and systems stuff than our content based business and they are frequently quoted in the tech media for their "tear down" service where they work out the cost of manufacturing of various devices. That takeover went through formally last Friday. A matter of hours later, iSuppli were themselves (ourselves?) taken over by a very large public company; IHS. IHS have a billion dollar business in information. Scientia potentia est.

I've also crossed a personal milestone recently. Since I started work I've been reading various tech news feeds in order to keep up the happenings in the mobile world. In the three and a half months I have read over 10,000 news items. I've also attended my first analyst briefing; an interesting insight into the way other anlysts operate and of course the obligatory networking. After all who you know is about as important as what you know. In every way; scientia potentia est.

Things to do when I get paid

1. A haircut.
2. Cut spare keys.
3. Flights home in November.
4. Be sociable!
5. Buy Assassin's Creed 2 (I know this contradicts number 4).
6. Get some baking utensils.
7. Attempt some baking.
8. Get some frames and photos for said frames.

My First Trip Home

This weekend I got to go back to the ol' sod for the first time and I picked a damn good weekend to do it. Not only did Cork win the All-Ireland, but I got to spend some great time with my Maeve and there was a little surprise for me when I got home from Tralee on Sunday... KITTENS!

Evil looking kittens admittedly, and they their mark on my mother's wrists when she was trying to move them, but since then they seem to have calmed down a bit even in that one day. Apparently there's a third on the way too. 

All in all an excellent weekend. I'm now back in the big schmoke and things are really really good (apart from my ever declining bank balance) but pay day is soon and things should be ok then. 

So in essence; things are awesome!

Sweet!

The Letter R

The small differences are beginning to become more and more clear. The most annoying one currently has to do with the letter R. Now, I have no other idea if other Irish people do this, but I pronounce the letter "r" like the work "or". People over here pronounce it with more or an "ar" sound. This had led to much confusion when I have to spell things out for people.
Also, I don't mean to seem insensitive or come across as having some weird prejudice, but there really seems to be more crazy people over here. Like serious insane, walking down the street, ranting and raving about the colour of the giant winged walrus that's following him around. They also smell odd. Maybe it's just Camden. It does seem to attract a fair few weirdos.

Gadgetastic!

As promised, the details of some of my recent acquisitions.

First of all, my phone:

HTC Wildfire; packing Android 2.1 on the Three network. It’s super fancy with oodles of apps available. The screen may not be as big as the Desire or the iPhone, but it was relatively cheap and it maintains my policy of not turning into a Steve Jobs sycophant (for now at least). Anyone out there with app recommendations?

Secondly, my TV as shown in my Integrated Media Centre^TM.

It’s a 26 inch LCD Toshiba with two HDMI ports which I am making good use of. One is connected to the Xbox 360 for some jaw dropping graphics, the other is hooked up to the TV box at the moment at even though I’m not getting the HD service, it does make the picture a little better I think. I also hook up to the laptop so that I can watch my downloaded material on the TV just because it’s cool. The TV or laptop are hooked to the speakers (depending on which I am using) to provide audio excellence. The neighbours haven’t complained about the noise yet despite that sub woofer giving off enough bass to attract some Norwegian fishermen (bad joke I know).

Thirdly, there’s the new laptop itself.

It’s also a Toshiba meaning there someone in Japan that’s very happy with me right now. It also means that it’s good; i3 processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, nVidea graphics card (512MB) with Windows 7. I like it. The only problems I’m having with it are the placement of the power socket on the side I use for a mouse which leads to cable entanglement and there’s only two USB ports. It may not seem like much but when it’s very annoying when that limitation becomes an issue.

Lastly; my most recent addition; a Logitech MK300 wireless keyboard and mouse.

They make controlling the laptop when it’s hooked up to TV practical and allow me to cause havoc if I hook them up to someone’s computer when they’re not looking. There’s something very satisfying about typing your blogposts using a wireless keyboard and you flatscreen TV as your display. It really makes me feel like one of the technological elite or something.