Music Rec.

Saturday, March 3. 2007
The Kooks. Very good. Sample:
Ooh La
She Moves In Her Own Way

Also, "Bamboleo" by Gipsy Kings.

Sunday (and the rest of this week)

Friday, March 2. 2007
It was a day that ended in 'Y'... so we went drinking on Saturday. But I was good. I actually made it to 11 o'clock mass in the city. And boy did I pick the right church. The church I chose looked nearly like a medieval style. It was more a single line than the cross shape usually associated with old churches, but very ornate and very cool. Mass took all of 45 minutes, most of which was consumed by a homily and giving communion to the 3 or 4 dozen people that had decided to join me.

After mass, I had to wait at the bus stop to get back to the south-bound buses. An old man struck up a conversation and we talked about the little things until our respective buses came. Rugby (Ireland beat the HELL out of England in Croke park.. which is BIG), weather, bus system, where I was from & what I was doing... From the 75% that I understood, we covered it all. I also met a girl visiting from DC later that day when I was back in the city & walked her around a bit while doing some shopping (after taking pictures - see below).

The rest of the week has been pretty uneventful. People are taking it easy before the 3 week spring break starts up. I, personally, can't wait. I'll be in Amsterdam for 3 days, back in Dublin for about 5, then in Greece for about 11. It is going to be wonderful. Oh - and there should be plenty of exploits to share when I get back. If there aren't, it wasn't a good trip.

New image galleries should be up (This was really the entire reason for the post).
Spain pictures
St. Stephen's Green pictures
Student's Union elections

Wednesday.

Wednesday, February 28. 2007
Sociology is starting to suck. The prof moved off sex being the cause of all irish customs to some BS about individuality and identity (not that the sex argument wasn't BS, too -- but at least it was more interesting). Coupled with the fact that I had to wake my @$$ up at 9:30 to go to it, you might guess that I wasn't a very happy camper. Whatever. I was buying food after that. Nothing makes you happier than having a fresh supply of food, right?

Has anyone every told you that Irish weather sucks? Well, that would be an understatement. My trip into the city started with swirling 40 mph winds. The full-arch rainbow in the distance and ominous clouds let me know that this trip into the city would be slightly less than dry. I was right. By the time I got off on O'Connell, it was raining.. AND I had to go to Lidl (possibly the worst, but cheapest, grocery store in existence - screw German efficiency). But it was cheap. And I do like buying my produce from farmers on the street -- even in the pouring rain. That is one thing I will really miss in Dublin.

On another note, I think my entertainment budget is going to go up. I've discovered a comic book store, and the classes I had in comics and film studies is teaching me to really like the more outlying stuff. I've recently bought Freakonomics (on advice from 2 roommates) and "Put The book back on the shelf." I really like Jean-Pierre Jeunet films and I have intentions to eventually own the "Sin City" and "Barefoot Gen" series. "V for Vendetta" will be mine, soon. I might get it after Greece (I have the intention to buy the second "Barefoot Gen" book for the flights and beaches). "Persepolis" would be nice, too, but that's not too high on my list. If you want something different - check the stuff out. The art is great.

I hadn't seen a rainbow in months

Saturday, February 24. 2007
The other day, I was thinking that for all of the living in Ireland I do, I see very few rainbows anymore. In fact, I hasn't seen one in probably 3 or 4 months. But after finishing my job today, it started to drizzle a bit. Irish drizzle. This is a kind of rain where there aren't so much drops as a constant mist. Think of those "misting areas" in theme parks on really hot summer days. Off to the east was a gigantic rainbow with the full spread of colors. It was probably 3/4 of an arch too. So pretty good.

But now, off to eat lunch, swing by a church in the city, and settle in at O'Neill's for the Ireland vs. England game. I hope Italy beats Scotland. Franklin's parents are in town and watching it with him already.

Quick update

Wednesday, February 14. 2007
Spain was amazing. The more I think back on it, the more I like it. It sucked that we had to leave Bilbao early to catch our plane in Vitoria, but I'm still glad I went. Wait for the pictures of the Guggenheim. That place was completely unique. Pictures will probably be up mid-next week. I'm going to Stockholm, Sweden this weekend, so I'll upload them together.

As for what's going on -- I'm not even sure. I'm sick (again), but getting better. This semester is going by so fast. I booked spring break tickets yesterday -- I'm spending ~11 days in Greece. Finally - warmth. Because I'm saving so much money there, I think I'll do something the weekend before St. Patrick's day. I think there are some people going to Amsterdam; I think I'll join them if I can do it for under $200. So that'll mean 2 weekends NOT traveling between now and April. Sick. Then May, and I'm graduated. Scary.

And tonight - I'm taking pictures for the Erasmus Students Network 20th anniversary party. It is another stoplight party, so .. hehe. We all know what happened at the last stoplight party. Well, everybody except me.

Happy Valentine's Day.

I have missed computers

Thursday, February 1. 2007
I've rediscovered computers after last semester's full load of humanities and a buggy wireless card that crashed my computer every, oh... 5 minutes or so. Getting the Zen to work with gnomad was the start - I got hooked. Then the program to mount my Zen as a normal filesystem didn't work -- so I decided to re-write it from scratch. I had to learn a TON of crap about C and building/linking systems in Unix before I could really start... and then reverse engineer FUSE (a filesystem authoring system) lifecycle and learn the libmtp & FUSE API's. That was actually really fun. Turns out, the program DID work... it is just horribly slow.

But writing in foreign languages was a total confidence boost. Enough to attempt one hell of a php project. Basically, I had to reverse-engineer the forms that Ryanair uses to search plane flights in order to get a list of places and prices for a given date. And the result is really magical. I would have never thought of going to Oslo, which may be next weekend's destination.

And now, I'm sitting in a 2nd year computer lab listening to people have trouble compling simple dictionary programs in Java (and other trivial programs). I remember doing them -- and they are milestones. First year milestones. I love having gone through school and having gained a skill -- and being pretty decent at the skill. I didn't think that I could really just "pick up" new systems (granted, i'd had a bit of prior experience). But I shouldn't have a problem finding a job at all -- this stuff is easy. It just needs to be done.

in Italia!

Tuesday, January 23. 2007
We landed a little late, so Franklin was actually there and waiting (Italians are always late. You'll notice the theme). We dropped his stuff in his SUV and went back into the airport to grab our first Italian coffee. It was just over 2 euro for 4.. not bad to me. And pretty darn good. It was just what we needed to perk us all up from the day of vicious travel (you did see the previous post, right? remember how I didn't mention sleeping?).

By the time we all got to Villa-de-Franklin, we were exhausted, but in total awe. His house was amazing, as was Villa Franka (his town). It has a castle. Just on the edge of town. No biggie. But we were so tired that we all just went to bed on reaching his house. Oh - and late night Italian TV is all porn. Mikey was magnetized to the stuff.

[Friday] The first day was the tour of Verona. What a lovely city. We started out by walking under a roman arch, then through various squares to a more medieval section, ending up at what is claimed to be Juliet's house. We all got pictures touching her bare boob (which is the tourist thing to do ... supposedly brings good "luck"). And I got a picture of her balcony.. because... why not? We stoled by the arena next .. a mini-coliseum. And the walking trip ended by heading north through the medieval part of town, over the river and past the old roman amphitheater. On top of the hill, there was a great overview of the city where we stayed while the sun set.

That night was pizza night. Pizza is totally different in italy. The crust is better and the cheese is better -- which makes the sauce completely optional. Fewer toppings, too, but it all works. It was some amazing stuff. And yes, they do have pizzas with sauce - they were great, too.

[Saturday] On the next day, we drove to an overlook in the east side of Garda Lake. I can't explain how magnificent of a view it was; you'll just have to look at the pictures. And the caves we walked through to get up there were a ton of fun. Between my camera's flash and kien's flashlight-phone, we had quite the interesting spelunking adventure. Franklin was not amused (being far too tall for caves).

We drove through the town below the lookout in the pictures and at a sandwich. Unfortunately, everything was closed due to it being off-peak season. But even so you could tell the place was pretty much the German hot-spot. Some of the signs were only in german -- not italian. And after a bit of scenery driving, we stopped at Lazise -- an old walled medieval town. Being in a castle just never feels right. Finally - a gelato. That stuff is money. Oh - and Kien slept at Marchi's in Verona that night. Along the way, was stopped to see one of the coolest churches in Verona. It was huge & lovely. And the inside ain't to shabby either.

[Sunday] The daytrip to Venice. I never thought I'd go to that city -- far too exotic. Too special. Too much of a photographer's dream. Let me tell you, I had PLENTY of space on my memory cards that day.


The Voyage Between

Tuesday, January 23. 2007
Last time I was going through O'Hare, I had about a 3 hour layover that got stretched out. I was aiming for a bit more pleasant trip this time. So I only booked an hour and a half layover. Oops. Apparently, the windy city couldn't handle a little bit of wind. Chicago got delayed by exactly 1.5 hours, making it absolutely impossible for me to make the connection. This would have actually been really cool, if I'd had Amanda's american phone number. But I explicitly thinking, "I'll never need that. I have her Irish number." Well, for the record, Verizon won't allow me to even try an international call. So I opted to go out a bit earlier on the next day since my brother had to be at the airport. I had them rebook me and pull my bags from the plane.

I show up the next day to the airport in a good mood to greet the ticket agent, whom I have to again convince that I cannot use the teller machines (international flight and all). Then, I learn that flight 92 out of Chicago doesn't fly that day. So basically, I'm not booked on a flight. Wonderful... The lady was good though; she booked me on a flight and sent me on my way.

And then I show up in Chicago. I have an hour until the gate opens, so I sit down with my computer and start some programming (the previously mentioned gnomad2 fixes). I'll tell you right now that if you're on a computer, people just expect you to be on the internet nowadays. I was asked about my signal SO many times. 100% of them were dumbfounded (amazing faces) to find out that I wasn't online.

I finally get to check-in... to find out I'm not booked on the plane. I really think my saving grace was the fact that US Air booked my luggage all the way through to Dublin. After a small debate with the ticket lady, she took my itinerary, luggage tag, and passport to her manager. A few keystrokes later and I was booked and on my way home (to Dublin).

Somehow, I ended up on the edge of a center row completely to myself. 4 seats! So I spread out. I had my laptop and mp3 player on 1 (finishing my fixes), and my dinner on the other. Even had the headphones in and was listening to movie. I do it up real big-style. The end of the flight was pretty rough, though. A good many people on the plane were "sick" -- including the poor girl across the aisle from me. The real tragedy was that she was about to start at UCD from DePaul (Chicago area), but hadn't been able to get on-campus housing.

The pilot finally put the plane down and we got the news that we wouldn't be using a jet-way... we were going old-school. Stairs and walking across the tarmac. And when I got near the door, I realized I might need a coat. It was so rainy and windy that water was pummeling me 1/2 across the jet from the door. Welcome home.

I got through immigration quickly enough (~5 seconds ... thank you Guarda card). Got my bags and ended up on the bus back to campus with Mikey. And all with 5 hours to spare before I needed to get on the bus back to the airport again!

I guess I should start where I left off...

Friday, January 19. 2007
The flight home was uneventful. And home was, well, home. What more can you ask for, home cooking, family, and a few friends. Christmas, then New Year's.

New years was great. Quarters and beer all night with some old S&M buddies and champagne with the ball drop. It was a PJ party, so I sported my new Guinness PJ's that my mom got me for Christmas, and even went to breakfast the next day in them. I met few new people (including 1 person that seems esp. cool) and gained some confidence in what I'll call "drunk reflexes." But new years was only 1/2 the reason I was in Raleigh.

I knew I would have a hard time keeping my contacts while overseas for a year. But surprisingly, conversation with my former boss(es) and biz-like friends was pretty easy. I might have found a job offer or two, a potential place or two to live, and caught a pint of Guinness with Alison again (I mention this because a girl liking Guinness is just novel to me). Unfortunately, I may no longer be able (consistently) to drink Guinness in the US. It is terrible (and isn't much better in Italy). It tastes like poorly brewed, overly roasted coffee. Top two pints so far: #1 O'Neil's of Suffolk Street and #2 Gravity Bar in the Guinness Storehouse.

Oh - and I got to play PS3 on 61" of 720p (for non-geeks, that's a mega-awesome-huge screen with outstanding quality). Mad props to Jason & roommates to putting me up for the better part of the week. I really wish I could have stayed another day, but I had to head home to pack up and fly out. Just my luck.

And the the 2.5 day journey to Italy began...

Attn: Amanda Crump

Wednesday, January 17. 2007
I don't have your email address. Email me or leave a comment. And Toni, since you get everything by proxy, you can just give me yours, too, if you want to cut out the middle man.

Amanda, I hate your airport

Tuesday, January 9. 2007
I'm supposed to be on an airplane somewhere around New York, right now. But no, I'm in my brother's apartment in Charlotte, NC. This should catching my flight to Milan very enjoyable. The deal was that it was "windy" in Chicago, and that prevented a lot of planes from landing. Ground-stop. That put me on a 1.5 hour delay, just enough to make me miss my connection by 5 minutes. Chicago doesn't delay international flights. Lovely. So one more day in the US. Lovely.

I can't believe this works...

Monday, January 8. 2007
**WARNING** Severe geek-talk. If you're not into computers, you won't appreciate this. Stop reading now.

First, DVD's in linux. Thanks VLC + libdvdcss. My on-board wireless card is still hosed, but I've got a 3Com to do the job (Ubuntu picks it up and uses it automagically). My USB key works. I haven't tried my cameras or picture holder, but I rarely hook those up to the laptop anyway. 2 of the 3 appear as mass storage anyway (so, like the key, they should just appear). And here is the kicker:

My creative Zen Vision: M now works with gnomad2 w/ libmtp to transfer music! If you look online, basically, it doesn't work with this player. Gnomad2-2..8.9 doesn't work with libmtp-0.1.1+ because changes to the API cause compile errors. And libmtp-0.1.0 sucks and doesn't work (just never really talks to my Zen correctly).

You ready? Cause right here is why I love linux: I was able to track down the compile error in gnomad2, pull the old code out of libmtp-0.1.0 to export the missing symbol in the 0.1.2 (complete with the code to support the function) and adapt the code to work in the 0.1.2 framework. A few recompiles and ldconfig's later, everything works. The player came straight up and I was able to transfer MC Chris' Fett's Vet over. Sound quality is good too. And this was all in C++, too. So my confidence in my upcoming job search has been bolstered by huge amounts.

Now, to go finish watching Florida DESTROY THE Ohio State University in one of the more exciting bowl games I've seen.

Unbounded

Sunday, January 7. 2007
Motivated by dying wireless drivers, I'm once again off windows. And I couldn't be happier. I had a little trouble getting the wireless to work, but an hour later, and that problem is solved. Now on to more pressing issues like making it look the way I want it. Wonderful. Updates on my trip to Raleigh upcoming.

So my love DOES have bounds

Wednesday, December 27. 2006
And the bounds are worth exactly $25. Newegg told me today (after me calling again due to no email response) that they would not honor their old price if the difference were more than $25. That's enough to loose my business for at least this mp3 player. And when I'm shopping for parts, you'd better believe I'll shop around.

I finally found the player again on amazon for a reduced price (lower than what Creative quotes). However, after their customer service was less than helpful and I was on hold for 20 minutes trying to speak to a manager, I just went to amazon's supplier. They had all of the information, reduced price, and shipping estimates. It'll be coming a little later than I'd hoped, but nothing too significant. Geeze, though. I've never had such a problem spending money.

My Love for newegg knows no bouds

Wednesday, December 27. 2006
Everyone that knows me knows I love computers and electronic dealies. And I buy them all from newegg. The two of my computer that I've put together, my camera, various upgrades, Mike's computer, and now, my mp3 player. But wait -- they were out of stock.

I ordered the AC adapter and mp3 player, but the were assigned different order numbers. The charger was in stock/was billed, but the mp3 player wasn't. Needless to say, the charger is completely useless without the player. I ordered at about 11 last night, so I couldn't get the problem resolved (it required a phone call). So I woke up early today to attempt to call when the phones opened. Well, that didn't work. I woke up (even w/ an alarm) an hour after the start of business PACIFIC time. I want to take a moment to appreciate that I am on Dublin time (5 hours before EST, which is 3 hours before PST). So basically, I'm still SO shifted that not even shifting more than 1/3 of the world helps.

Anyways, I finally get newegg on the phone, and the lady has the most calming voice I've heard in a while. Gets through all of the stuff, and after leading her quite a bit, she finally says, "oh, we have 99 of them in the warehouse. I'll have to wait about 15 minutes to confirm, but you should get it Friday." EXACTLY what I wanted to hear. We'll see in about 10 minutes if she comes through.

As an afternote (esp. for those who REALLY know me well) -- I did NOT cave. I didn't buy an iPod. I spent a lot less money and got a much better product. I will be getting a Creative Zen Vision: M.